The Legacy of James and Lily
by lovelylilylunapotter
Summary: It's the start of the 7th year. James likes Lily increasingly more every day, while the fiery redhead just continues to despise him. Want to find out how James manages to catch the girl of his dreams? Want to know who else was involved in their lives? This story is my version of how two brave Gryffindors became united as one, all while tossed in the midst of a terrifying war.
1. Chapter 1

It was a cool autumn morning; vivd orange and red leaves fluttered through the fresh air, gently falling to the soil in crisp, scattered piles, spreading an earthen smell in the air.

A girl with long, dark red hair and emerald green eyes tossed and turned on her mattress, clutching her silken comforter tightly.

"Lily!" A petite woman with light blond hair started walking up the dusty stairs, trying to not let each bit of wood creak as she said, "Honey, it's time to wake up. Today's your first day of term at Hogwarts, remember?"

Flashing her eyelids open, Lily blinked a few times, yawning heavily and throwing her pile of blankets to the floor. "I'm coming, Mum!"

The petite lady, who at the tender age of forty-three was still regally beautiful, poked her head into her youngest daughter's room, remarking, "Hurry up! We have to leave to platform nine and three quarters in half an hour."

Quickly sliding out of her nightdress and pulling on a cream-colored jacket, Lily replied, "It's okay, Mum! I can drive over there. I don't want you and Dad to be late to work."

"No that's alright Lily. Your Dad and I want to see you off to school."

Running a long comb through her silky hair, Lily sighed, "Mum, no-one's parents drive them to places when they're seventeen years old."

Ruffling her hair meticulously, Rosalind pressed a light kiss to her daughter's forehead, "But this is your last year at Hogwarts, sweetie. After the summer, you'll be moving out, and you'll be a legal adult with your own job! We won't get to see you much."

Sighing, the redhead rubbed some chapstick on her chapped lips, smoothing some cherry-flavored lip gloss onto them, throwing some of her last minute items into her trunk recklessly, shrinking it so that everything all fit, and picking up her owl cage. "Okay Mum, you can drive me there. But we have to get ready quickly!"

The blond haired woman picked up her daughter's trunk. "I'll bring this downstairs. You go on ahead and eat breakfast; I don't want you to be late!"

"Okay," Lily replied, quickly bouncing down her stairs and popping into the kitchen, grabbing toast and shoving it into her mouth.

Her father, who had dark red hair and pale blue eyes and was holding a steaming mug of coffee, set it down on the breakfast table. "Morning, Lily. Are you all set to go?"

She looked worried, "Yeah, but we have to leave quickly, so you might want to finish that cup of coffee."

Ruffling through the newspaper, he pulled her into an embrace, squeezing her hand reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'm ready to leave. I'm so proud; my youngest daughter is Head Girl!"

"Thanks, Dad. I wonder who Head boy will be, maybe Remus or Ben…"

Chuckling, her dad lowered his spectacles, "Imagine if it's that boy who you say is really obnoxious, James Potter."

"Dad, that's not going to happen; Dumbledore knows better than to pick someone like that for Head Boy! He's really popular, Quidditch captain, really good-looking and charming, but…"

Rosalind, who was just walking down the stairs carrying Lily's trunk, winked at her. "Then why don't you go out with him. He's been asking you since fourth year, right?"

Looking extremely frenzied, Lily's father said, "What? That git asked her out?"

"Oh get a grip, Mark! Our Lily's not a young girl anymore; she's all grown up and seventeen years old for goodness sakes! You should be glad it wasn't earlier!"

Lily bit her lip, "And it doesn't even matter, Dad, because no matter how many times he asks me out, I will never go out with him. He just doesn't get the fact that a girl can say no to him. He might be good-lucking and charming, but seriously, he's not worth it. I've never met someone as arrogant as him. Someone needs to set him straight!"

For a few minutes, there was an awkward silence in the room, until the redhead inquired, "Why are we talking about James Potter again?"

"Oh, the topic just arose, " replied the blonde.

Her dad took a big sip from his chorale mug. "Yes, it all started with me saying how proud I am of you. You're Head Girl, top in your class, a witch…"

A stout girl with short tufts of light blond hair and piercing hawk-like eyes stepped lightly off the bottom step, saying, "Yes, we all know how amazing _she_ is."

Gasping, Lily whipped around, for she had not heard Petunia walking down the stairs until she spoke; she entered the room just like a mouse.

The smile was wiped off of Rosalind's face, and she rushed to hug her older daughter. "Oh no, Petunia. We're very proud of you!"

Tugging up the corners of his mouth, Mark put an arm around Petunia, patting her on the back. "Yes Pet, we're all very proud of you! Acceptance into the Cokeworth Medical School is very hard to get, and in just a few years, you'll become a well-established dermatologist."

Harshly pulling away from her parents, the blond girl coldly remarked, "No."

Confused, Mark asked, "What do you mean, Pet?"

Trailing her fingers along the edges of warm glass in the windows, she shot Lily a nasty look. "I'm not going to medical school."

"But why not? You got in!" Mark exclaimed.

Petunia bitterly spat, "So? I'm tired of you always mooning over that freak's achievements." She faked her voice, molding it to be very shrill, "Oh Lily's so amazing, Lily's the best, Lily's a witch. Lily's so smart. Lily's so pretty. Lily's so talented. Lily's Head Girl. Lily's top of her class." Taking in deliberately deep breaths, she angrily continued, "Lily, Lily, Lily. Is she all you ever care about?"

Unhappy, the redhead protested, "No, Pet, that's not true! Mum and Dad care just as much about you!"

With a snort, Petunia exclaimed, "Yeah right, freak! They think you're so amazing, but frankly, you're just a piece of filth. A freak. A witch. And no-one in their right mind would ever like you. You're so dumb and stupid, and you don't even deserve to be Head Girl. You're friends with the most obnoxious idiots, and I hate your stupid Wizarding world. I hate everything about it. I hate you!"

Lily burst into tears, not even finishing her oatmeal and running into the bathroom, hot tears slipping down her cheeks rapidly.

Rosalind angrily reprimanded her eldest daughter, running into the bathroom to comfort Lily, while Mark took Petunia into an embrace, wiping off her tears and calming her down.

Lily sobbed, "Why does she have to hate me so much? I'm her sister, and I love her so much, but she still hates me."

Squeezing her hand, Rosalind whispered into Lily's ear, "Shh…sweetie, it's alright. Pet loves you, and you know it. She doesn't hate you. She just hates the fact that you're a witch. But it's all going to be okay; I'm sure you and Pet will make up one day. Come on, it's almost time to go to school. I want you to forget everything that just happened, okay?"

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Lily nodded. "Okay, but can you please try to convince Petunia to go to medical school? I don't want her to not be a doctor just because of her anger with me."

Mark emerged from the living room. "Yeah, we'll make sure Pet understands that she's very important to us. She'll go to medical school; don't worry."

Emerging from the living room, the blond girl narrowed her eyes. "Oh no I won't! I don't want to live anywhere near you because you're so over the moon about _her_. I don't want to see her every single day of the year!"

"No, Pet, I'll be moving out after next summer! Just stay here!" Lily tried to argue.

The blond angrily fumed, "It doesn't matter! I'll still see you every day in Mum and Dad's eyes. I'll still have to bear the fact that they love you so much more than they love me! You know what, I've had enough. I've enrolled in a typing course in London, and guess what, you'll probably never see me again, and I'll be doing an office job in a few months! So this is good bye for me and you; the bus to London leaves at ten, and I've already booked my ticket. Bye, and I hope I never see you again, freak!"

Petunia stormed through the front door, kicking it shut behind her with a loud slam and vehemently pummeling her bowl of oatmeal to the ground. With a final enraged look at her childhood home, Petunia's eyes started becoming watery, and she walked off into the distance.

Everyone was speechless for a couple of seconds, until Lily burst into tears again, "Now she's gone and left you, all because of me."

Rosalind had tears in her eyes too, and she said, "It's okay; it's not your fault. I guess I should have shown her more affection. I always tried to treat you both equally, but I guess the message just never got across."

Mark comforted his wife and daughter, but even he was crying, for the first time in more than twenty years. "It's okay. She'll come around; she's just really angry. I'll write to her, so hopefully she'll see sense and come back to Cokeworth. Now Lily—" He cleared his throat, "don't let this get in the way of your seventh year. I hope that you have a good year. My goodness; there's ten minutes left until the train leaves!"

Lily's eyes bulged, "What?! We'll never get there in time. I have to Apparate; I'm really sorry Mum and Dad. I promise I'll write to you."

Taking out her wand, Lily grabbed her trunk and owl, feeling a tug at her navel as she vanished into thin air and reappeared at platform nine and three-quarters. A frown shadowed her face as she saw a certain boy with messy black hair and twinkling hazel-colored eyes walking about, his eyes searching through the crowd.

Potter. That jerk had been a thorn in her side since fourth year—wait, make that first year. Fourth year was when he officially started asking her out. He had annoyed her before that too, running a hand through his messy black hair and showing off for giggling crowds of younger girls. Just thinking about him at the moment agitated her; her day was already half-ruined by her ungrateful and prejudiced sister Petunia, and now _he_ had to be the first one whom she saw!

Even Lily had to admit that he was popular, good-looking, and amazing at Quidditch, but seriously, he wasn't worth it. His personality was enough to make any sensible girl run away screaming. He was arrogant, childish, rude, condescending, pompous, over-confident, impudent, and cocky... Lily could add to this list all night, but no one else seemed to understand her hatred towards him, not even her best friend, Dorcas, who was best buddies with him. Literally.

Shaking her head, Lily strolled across the platform, down towards the front car where the Heads' room and the prefects' lounge were located. On her way, she passed the Marauders, and all four were laughing merrily, probably planning their next prank on some poor first-year student. If it wasn't a first year, the target would definitely be Severus, whom Lily sort of felt bad for. Even though he had called her a Mudblood in fifth year, he was kind to her and seemed to always get pranked by the Marauders. However, Lily had refused to speak to him after fifth year because he had joined the Death Eaters, befriending the worst sorts of people, like Avery, Nott, and Malfoy.

Ducking her head, the redhead hid behind some trolleys and carts as she passed, thus successful in not being seen by the one and only James Potter. All he would do is call out to her and embarrass her by asking her out in the midst of everyone.

Like she would ever say yes if someone asked her out in such a fashion. Maybe if his head lost about ten sizes, maybe if he asked her politely, maybe if he didn't only try and date her for a joke or a bet with Black, maybe if he didn't want to date her so he could brag about catching the girl of his dreams with his mates, maybe... Lily mentally slapped herself for trying to find a way around the problem at hand, knowing full well that there was no solution. She would never say yes.

When she finally made it to the Heads' compartment, she almost died from shock. Clenching her teeth, Lily slammed the door shut, sliding the glass recklessly as her eyes blazed.

The boy inside jumped about a mile when he heard the noise, as he had been sitting there quietly reading a Quidditch magazine. However, when he glanced up at her, a huge smile littered his face and his hazel eyes began to sparkle, though he looked sort of worried. "What's wrong? Have you not had a good summer, Evans?"

Seething, Lily replied, "It was fine. I thought I was having a good year until now you've shown up and ruined my day."

Potter didn't look too offended, for he took her hand in his, smoothing his fingers over Lily's skin. "You don't mean that do you? Would you like to go to the first Hogsmeade weekend with me, lovely Evans?"

Lily rolled her eyes and counted to ten so she wouldn't choke him to death in her fury. She ignored his request for a date, trying her best to calm her voice as she jerked her hand out of his. "Potter, you are not supposed to be in the Heads' compartment. If you're waiting for Remus, you'll have to wait until later. You'll see him soon enough, though, I promise. We have duties to attend to, so you shouldn't bother him."

If anything, Potter's smile grew wider, and he reached into his pocket, pulling out a silvery badge. "No, Evans, I think you're mistaken. I'm Head Boy."

Lily recoiled, absolutely horrified, no terrified, by the idea of Potter being her partner for the rest of the year.

Winking, he slid closer next to her, smoothing down his hair. "You ready to be partners in crime?"

Shoving him away, Lily nearly screamed, "Get away from me, Potter!"

She was going to have to live next to him for nine months. And that didn't just mean living next to him… It meant sharing a bathroom and common room, as well as having to negotiate with him nearly every day, every hour. Not to mention they had perfectly identical schedules; he'd be in all of her classes.

Feeling bile slowly creeping up her throat at the mere idea, Lily hoped that this was all a stupid prank that her best friend Dor had planned, or even better, a nightmare. "There is no way that Professor Dumbledore would make you Head Boy, Potter."

Sighing, James handed her the badge so that she could read it. She noticed, much to her dismay, that it was clearly engraved, 'James Potter.'

Throwing her a cocky smile, James said, "I don't get why you're so surprised, Evans. I'm the best bloke in Hogwarts. Dumbledore was bound to pick me."

"Don't be an idiot, Potter. You're not even close to being the person suited best for this job."

He started trailing his fingers through her red hair. "I see no reason why he shouldn't have picked me. I'm smart, I'm amazing at Quidditch, and everyone likes me. Wait no, change that to everyone loves me."

Lily groaned, shoving her face into her hands. "Get over yourself, Potter. You really do think you're Merlin's gift to the world, don't you? Well, face the facts, you're not. Your big bloated head is probably too stuffed to retain any knowledge."

He just grinned even wider, "My big bloated head, eh? Geez, Evans, I'm intelligent! Why else would Dumbledore pick me? All the girls seem to be head over heels in love with me. I mean, why wouldn't they be?"

Seething, Lily nearly yelled, "Shut up, Potter. Why does every second of your stupid conversations with me have to be about how amazing you are?"

"Because you have to understand how amazing I am. Only then will you go out with me, I'm sure."

Shaking her head, Lily said, "Potter, stop trying to impress with these stupid tactics. They're never going to work; you're just too bossy, condescending, arrogant, rude…"

He guffawed, "Oh shut that mouth of yours, Evans! Me? Rude? You have _got _to be kidding me."

"Oh, just please shut up, will you? Face the facts, hell would have to freeze over before I went out with you." Lily wildly exclaimed, swinging her arms.

James was quiet for awhile, until she turned to face him and spat, "Why did Dumbledore pick you, anyways?"

His face thoughtful, James grinned, "You know, I asked Dumbledore why he made me Head boy. But his words were, and I quote, 'James, I picked you because I felt like it. Please do not make me regret my decision.' End quote. You _know_ I totally deserve the badge, Evans."

Lily just shook her head, and something inside of her seemed to snap, "Potter, this cannot be happening! _You_ weren't supposed to be Head Boy! This is not fair! Besides, when would Dumbledore speak personally to you anyway, in the middle of you and the Marauders causing mayhem? You're lying, and I know it, James. You probably stole the badge and had your name engraved on it!"

James cut off her rant by grabbing her shoulders, and yelling, "Shut it!"

He was hurt she didn't seem to believe anything he was saying, and he had never speculated that she considered him a liar until then. "Listen, Lily, I wouldn't lie to you. Calm down. Let's just go to the prefect's lounge."

Lily just looked at him like he had gone crazy. "Get your hands off of me."

James gently let go and for once, actually looked remorseful, making a mental note to try his best not to aggravate her. "Sorry. So what do you say we go to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

Lily shot him a spiteful look, fury radiating in her mind as she ignored his request for a date. "Apology accepted; now can we go to the lounge?"

James nodded, a bit downcast that she had ignored his request for a date. They started walking towards the prefect's compartment, closing the glass doors of compartments along the way.

When she opened the door and walked in, all of the talking ceased. She wasn't sure if it was because she looked extremely mad with her eyes still a bit puffy from crying over Petunia's departure or because Potter had walked in behind her. Only Remus was smiling—actually, he was almost laughing at the two of them, possibly because he noticed the lovesick look that James was throwing at Lily. Bellatrix and Severus, meanwhile, were sneering at them with cold, disgusted looks in their eyes. James asked, "Is everyone here?"

Everyone looked around the room to check that exactly twelve prefects were in the room and replied, "Yes."

Lily tried to put a wry smile on her face. "Potter and I are Head Boy and Girl this year. This meeting is just to get you all to introduce yourselves to one another and for the older students to help the younger prefects get accustomed to their duties. All of you need to patrol the corridors of the train and switch duties by the hour each night. If there are any problems, you can call either me or Potter. In the Hogwarts castle, prefects can use the prefects' lounge and prefects' bathrooms located in the fifth floor corridor, but please, do not be out of bed using these in times when you're not allowed, and please, do not use the bathrooms when you're supposed to be on duty. The password for these areas is 'cauldron cakes.' Please do not give the passwords for these areas to anyone, including your friends because it is a great privilege to be a prefect, and these bathrooms are for your use, and your use only. You have definitely deserved it. Potter and I will develop a sign-up sheet for you all in the prefects' lounge so you can sign up to do patrol of the hallways six nights a week. That's all I need to say, unless there is something Potter would like to add?"

Everyone in the room seemed to notice the biting tone she used when addressing James, but he just waved it off, deciding to give her break for the rest of the day. "Professor Dumbledore asked me to inform all of you that he would like for us all to practice some inter-house unity. He understands that everyone is sorted into houses, becomes friends with those in their houses, and plays for or supports the Quidditch teams of their houses, but he would like us all to make an effort to encourage studying with students from other houses or practicing Quidditch with students from other houses as well as making an effort to be friends with them. He says that it is vital in this time period, especially since dark wizards are rising."

Lily was rather taken aback by the calm way Potter handled himself and also a bit dismayed that Dumbledore hadn't mentioned any of that information to her. She had no time to comment because Severus beat her to it, looking at James with utter dislike and disdain. "Potter, what if we want to partner with those from our own houses? Why do we have to pair up with someone we don't like?"

His mouth set and eyes cold, James spat at him, "Because Dumbledore is telling you to do it! I'm not saying this will work out properly; just give it a try, Snivellus."

Bellatrix jumped in before Severus could start arguing. "It's not like we're actually going to take advice from you piece of filth."

Potter looked ready to spit fire with his eyes as he replied, "Everyone knows what a jerk you are, Bellatrix. There's no need to remind us of it."

Extremely incensed by his comment, Bellatrix jumped up, about to take out her wand.

Lily interrupted before this conversation had the chance to escalate into a fight, "Everyone, please calm down. There's no need to get into arguments before school even starts. We'll schedule a prefects' meeting at some point to discuss the patrol and inter-house unity issues further. The sign-up sheet will be up on the bulletin board later tonight so you all can begin to sign up and begin patrol starting tomorrow night. Please do your duties well, and I bid you a good day."

Everyone jumped off of their seats, wordlessly plodding back to their friends. The redhead turned to see Potter scowling and Remus laughing at him. She cautiously approached them both and caught the end of what Remus was saying, "…can't believe she would do that in front of everyone. She seems to have been taking the rejection much too terribly."

James didn't see Lily's approach, so he was immediately defensive. "Well she should've known I would never yield to her, Remus. It was just the Black family acting all superior and—" Remus cut him off and gestured to the Head Girl.

James turned and noticed Lily looking at him rather oddly, her arms crossed over her chest with an annoyed look on her face. He turned to Remus with a 'help me' expression. "Umm, I need to talk to Evans for a bit. Come by later if you have the chance. Oh, and don't forget to tell Padfoot that there's plenty of time for what he's doing now at Hogwarts, so he doesn't need to scar some poor first year's eyes."

Remus felt a laugh echo through his throat, but he contained it, offering Lily the tiniest of smiles and walking out of the compartment. As soon as he was gone, the redhead scowled, "Why did you attack Bellatrix like that, Potter? You set a bad example for everyone in that room. Seriously, couldn't you wait until term begins? Do you want to lose Gryffindor a bunch of points?"

He waved his arms, protesting, "She called me a piece of filth! What else do you expect me to do?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe calmly deal with the situation, and don't lead her on!" Lily taunted him.

Fuming, he screamed at her, "God, Evans, why do you have to harp on everything I do?"

"Shut up, Potter! You know you deserve it."

James got up and gestured for her to go on ahead of him, "Fine! Whatever. I'm sorry for sparking the fight. Thanks for stopping it before it could get worse."

Pleasantly surprised, Lily tried to pull a smile onto her face. "It's fine, Potter. Your welcome." She definitely didn't expect him to thank her, and she loved that he was finally accepting that he had made a mistake. I mean, he was at least making an effort to _attempt_ to not be so self-centered.

When they reached the Heads' room, James plopped down on the left side and grabbed a book out of his satchel. Managing a smile, Lily was surprised that he was actually reading a book and not browsing through useless Quidditch magazines. However, she was still a bit mad about him being Head Boy, and she still felt quite disheveled at what she had heard Remus and Potter saying. It was something about Bellatrix getting rejected by James. What was that all about?

Snapping out of her thoughts, Lily pulled out two small pieces from her pocket and cast two enlargement charms. She levitated her trunk away and opened up her satchel to grab a quill and some parchment. If she was stuck with Potter for a year, she was going to make him work hard. Though she was very responsible and usually liked doing work thoroughly, she was not going to pass up the chance to rub it in Potter's face that the time for pranking was over. Besides, he appeared to be very capable of handling Head's Duties, so why not make him do it?

Handing him a spare bit of parchment, Lily said, "Potter, we need organize the timings for Hogsmeade weekends and make the patrol sign-up sheet."

Potter nodded grudgingly, but still argued, "We only need to make the sign-up sheet now, and even that, we can do after dinner. Dumbledore wants to meet with us this Wednesday afternoon to discuss Hogsmeade weekends and whatever else we want to do this year. We can plan all that in the next couple of days before the meeting."

Lily rolled her eyes impatiently, secretly fuming inside of her mind. _How come Dumbledore never mentioned any of this to her?!_ "Potter, we'll probably be way too tired to plan after the feast. And why are you such a big procrastinator? How would you know what Professor Dumbledore wants anyway? Since when do you even see him when you aren't causing trouble?"

Potter leaned back, not sure what to say. He was really angered by what Lily had said; did she really think all he did was cause trouble? He talked to her in a biting tone, "Dumbledore is good friends with my family, Evans. I saw him a lot this summer due to that fact. I wouldn't lie about talking to Dumbledore; you should know that before making stupid assumptions. It's not like I cause trouble all day. Like I said before, my family knows Dumbledore really well."

Rolling her eyes, Lily spat back at him with a similar tone, "Sorry. I forgot who your _family_ was for a second.

James' anger was extremely incensed by this comment; she was basically calling him a pure-blood. "Just because I'm a pure-blood and all doesn't mean I'm anything like the Slytherins. My family doesn't uphold the pure-blood ideals and is considered blood traitors by most. You shouldn't be so quick to judge, Evans!"

Lily was almost taken aback by his tone. If anything, James had only been arrogant with her or had showered her with compliments—he had rarely been short with her. "I didn't mean it like that."

James nodded, saying, "Fine, let's just forget this whole conversation. So…this sign-up sheet thing is easy." He waved his wand, and the blank parchment in front of her was immediately inscribed with slots for the prefects to sign up for specific time periods, twelve prefects to each day, starting the next week. He thought for a moment and then waved his wand again. The parchment now also mentioned that the Heads would be doing the first curfew rounds each night from 9-10 pm to make sure all were properly in their dormitories, including the prefects. "Perfect, we'll do rounds every night."

Lily narrowed her eyes, unable to stand the thought of spending an hour with him, walking through the dimly lit corridors. "Potter, I am _not_ doing rounds with you every night."

James was taken aback at how stubborn she was being. He had spoken with Lily's friend Dorcas over the summer, and she had given some advice about how to act when handling Evans. He had taken the advice to heart and didn't ask her out nearly as often. He had only asked her out twice, and he didn't think he was being well, _too_ arrogant, but he knew she would find a way for her to make it seem like he was.

"Fine then, you and I can switch off every other night and do it solo if you can't stand to be around me for a mere hour, Evans. It's getting too hard to meet your needs. Why don't you just tone down your superiority a bit?!"

Lily looked at him coldly, "I'm not being superior, Potter, and I never asked you to meet my needs. For God's sake, I just asked to not do rounds with you. You don't have to be so snappy."

James looked extremely annoyed. "Yeah, and you don't have to be so stubborn."

"Shut up, Potter. What is it with you today, anyways?"

"Look, Evans, I'm tired of arguing, and I'm tired of chasing after you. Let's just go back to normal, okay? I'm sorry about snapping at you. I've just had a really horrible day."

Sighing, it was hard for Lily not to forgive Potter. After all, she really understood what it felt like to have a terrible day. I mean, just look at what happened with her and Petunia."Yeah, I'm sorry about being stubborn and snappy with you, Potter. It's just that I've had a horrible day too."

James turned to face her and was very surprised when he saw tears slipping from her eyes, for she usually never cried, at least not in front of him. And she didn't seem to be the sensitive type either. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Lily was taken aback at how James was acting; he was actually being very sweet. Shaking her head so that some of her long silky tufts of red hair fell across her face, she replied, "No, that's alright. Thanks for offering though."

Still looking a bit concerned, James pulled out a Transfiguration magazine, burying his nose into it and scanning his eyes across the pages like a hawk.

Lily tried to ignore him still sitting there in the Heads' room, but his presence finally began to annoy her after a few minutes of her own reading and writing. Though she was glad that he was finally doing some work, Lily didn't like the fact that he was sitting right across from her, in such close proximity. "Don't you have friends to bother, Potter?"

James sighed, throwing his book to the floor in his anger. It had only been about ten minutes before she had started in on him again. He had been leaving her alone, yet she still managed to somehow find him annoying. "Evans, Remus is doing prefect work, Peter usually sleeps until one of us wakes him up, and Sirius usually spends time sitting in a locked compartment doing things that I would rather not mention. I may be considered a popular guy, but there are no other people I would rather sit with than you, Evans. Why do you have to pick at everything I say and do?"

Lily scowled, "I'm not picking at everything you say and do. I'm just wondering…why don't you go sit with Bellatrix? I bet she'd be over the moon about that arrangement."

James frowned at her question. "How do you know about that?"

She looked at him straight in the eye, sighing. "I'm not stupid, Potter. I overheard you and Remus talking back in the Prefect's Lounge."

His eyes were smoldering. "If you haven't noticed, Evans, I like you! Not her! Besides, she's got all these stupid pure-blood ideals that she believes in; how could you assume that I would sit like a person who believes that pure-blood's are superior? "

Taking out some parchment a quill and feeling a bit guilty for assuming that he would want to sit with Bellatrix, especially when he liked a Muggle-born, Lily said, "I'm sorry for asking, Potter."

They sat in silence for the rest of the trip. Eventually, James left to let her get changed into her robes and to get changed himself. It was rather odd comparing what she had always known to be James Potter to the James Potter in front of her right then. She had always seen him with the Marauders causing trouble and chaos or asking her out in the most ridiculous and embarrassing ways. To see him actually sit still and read a book about Transfiguration, not on the required reading list, mind you, and actually look interested about it, was a very surprising thing. Not to mention that he had seemingly handled being Head Boy rather easily and stuck up for his friend without being arrogant at all. It was all rather alarming to her, as she contemplated the situation at hand. Had she missed something through all the years?

When the train finally stopped, she and Potter escorted all of the returning students to the carriages and helped Hagrid with the first years before jumping into the last carriage together. Lily fidgeted in her seat, uncomfortable with James' silence. Whenever they sat together, James usually used the opportunity to ask her out, but now he wasn't saying a thing to her. Lily wondered why it bothered her so much. Probably because she had to communicate with the Head Boy all year to make sure things got done properly. Forcing a smile onto her face, she asked, "Umm, Potter?"

James looked surprised to see her speaking to him; he had expected to be indifferent towards him, especially since he was leaving her alone. "Yes?"

"Where exactly is the Heads' dormitory?"

James closed the book he was reading, running his fingers along the comfortable leather of the thestral-driven carriages. "I'll show you where it is after the feast. It's up on the sixth floor near the walls of armor. There's a not- passageway and a sphinx gargoyle which moves in response to the password. I'll show you after the feast."

When the carriages arrived, the two again helped to organize everyone and lead them inside of the castle. When they walked into the Great Hall, she immediately noticed that Sirius was talking rather solemnly with Professor Dumbledore near the Professors' table. James immediately left her and went up to talk with them both. Lily rolled her eyes and sat down in a huff; of course Professor Dumbledore was close to the biggest troublemakers in the school.

Sighing heavily, her best friend Dorcas eventually plopped down next to her, twirling her fork around absentmindedly. She had a mischievous look in her eyes. "So you and James for Head Boy and Girl? No way! People were talking about it all over the train. I hear some people are suggesting that you might grow closer to him since you get to see him walking around in nothing but a towel."

Her friend nudged her suggestively, but Lily just furrowed her eyebrows. "Eww…No. I'm going to have to make a law; he has to walk around fully clothed."

Dorcas giggled as Lily rolled her eyes, muttering insults at all of the annoying gossipers under her breath. "Yes, it's me and Potter, unfortunately. Although I have to admit, and I won't say this to anyone else, he might just do a good job."

Dorcas' eyes widened in disbelief. "No! Who are you, and what have you done with Lily Evans?"

Her eyes twinkling, a laugh echoed through the room, and Lily whispered to her friend, "I'm serious. I don't like it, obviously, but he does have a way with being in authority, and he appears to be mates with Dumbledore."

After seeing Lily nod to her right, Dorcas looked up towards the Professors' table where Dumbledore, Sirius, and Potter were still talking as everyone continued to pour into the Great Hall. "Yeah, I kind of knew about that beforehand. It might work in your favor, for stuff you want to do and all."

Nodding, Lily focused her attention to the welcoming ceremony. After the sorting and the feast began, she noticed she had been watching Potter without meaning to. He seemed more relaxed now that he was at Hogwarts. Curiosity pulled at her to know the reason that Dumbledore was on such good terms with him, but she knew it wasn't her business. When the feast had ended, he got up, said his goodbyes, and headed over towards her. She noticed him stop briefly to whisper in a girl's ear and pat her on the back gently.

She watched the girl nod, pulling him into a quick hug and walking away from the Great Hall. Lily was confused. She had never seen Potter do that before. Well, she technically had never watched him before. Who was the petite, dirty blonde-haired girl anyway? Lily knew she was in Ravenclaw, and for the life of her, Lily could not remember her name, but she knew that she wasn't on the Quidditch team. Her brow furrowed. Wait, why did this even matter? Was she an old girlfriend of Potter's, or possibly a new one?

James walked over to Lily, casually resting a hand on the table and smoothing his fingers over the tablecloth. "Hey Evans. I told the prefects the passwords. For Gryffindor, it's 'samara aurora,' just so you know. Ours is whatever we want."

Lily just nodded and walked along with him. She saw a few girls from Hufflepuff straggling to get a glimpse of him and were looking disdainfully at Lily, but James didn't seem to either notice or care. When they got out of earshot, James continued, "So what do you want the password to be, Evans?"

Lily was surprised that he would ask for her opinion. She had figured that he would make it some complicated Quidditch term or something. Anger bubbling at the pits of her stomach at the image of James hugging the Ravenclaw girl replaying over and over again in her mind in torturously slow motion, she said, "I don't know. Why are you letting me pick anyway?"

James felt very hurt due to the fact that she always had to argue with him, even when he was trying to be nice. "I don't know. I just thought you would want to pick. God Evans, why are you harping on me when I'm trying to be nice?"

Lily glared at him. Now he thought she was some 'miss superior' type and would probably just order him around? Why couldn't he just be nice? "I'm not some 'miss superior' type, Potter."

"Fine. How about 'Lily Evans hates James Potter then?'" James was looking at her spitefully, his eyes narrowed in frustration. Although she was a little taken aback by James having a rather biting tone with her for the second time that day, his comment just elevated Lily's anger even more. "Anyone could guess that, Potter."

James sighed in exasperation. "How about 'Are you _Sirius_?"

Smirking, Lily replied, "Fine, I guess that'll work."

After they decided, the two of them continued to walk in silence, both of them still angrily thinking about the other. Suddenly, James held up his hand and stopped them next to a blank wall just after the picture of two gargoyles and a man with a club. "Watch," He ordered.

Lily observed him as he tapped his wand in three specific places. Nothing appeared to have happened, but then James walked right through the wall. Lily tentatively put her hand out and upon seeing it dematerialize, followed him through. James had already walked down the short hallway and had stopped at the portrait. "The password is going to be 'Are you Sirius?'"

Giving him a wink and calling out to the Lily cheerfully, the portrait opened up for the two of them. They both entered and were not surprised to see the Heads' common room in red and gold. There was a couch, two plush armchairs, and a coffee table in front of a fireplace, which already had a blazing fire. There was also a table with two chairs off to the far right, probably for studying. In the back of the room, there were stairs leading to two doors. The one on the left had her name written on it while the one on the right had James' name on it.

Lily eyed him warily. "Good night, Potter. And please, don't come into my room."

James rolled his eyes at her even suggesting he would do such a thing. "I would never invade your privacy, Evans."

"Whatever. Just leave me alone, and we'll get along fine. Is that clear?"

James held up his hands in defeat, but then he smiled. "Crystal. Does this mean you won't go out with me, Evans?"

Lily scowled loudly, and her eyes flared. "Arrrrggghhhh! I _hate_ you, Potter!"

James watched her fly into her room and shut the door with a loud slam.

Maybe he'd have better luck another time. With a sigh, he plopped himself onto his king-sized bed. It was definitely going to be an interesting year.

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	2. Chapter 2

Lily surveyed James Potter for the first two weeks of classes, much to her own dismay. She noticed that he still acted arrogant and self-centered with the Marauders, still seemed to be a major part of their pranks, and still managed to ask her out about a fair amount of times in the crowded halls. Yet there was another side of Potter she was seeing now that the two of them lived in such close proximity. He always managed to finish his homework quickly, read extra books on Transfiguration among other things, was extremely loyal and helpful to his friends as well as other students (particularly the first years she had seen him helping out), actually showed up on time for Heads' patrol every night (unlike what she had expected), dismissed all requests of dates he got from girls, no matter how pretty they were, focused all of his love life attention on Lily, and was already beginning Quidditch try-outs and setting up their practices. She was a bit baffled as to how he managed all of his time, and she was extremely angered by the fact that he wasn't the jerk she always had thought him to be. Did she really only focus on his faults and never see what he was really like? It was a bit annoying to consider all of this.

During patrol, they would talk civilly for a while, and somewhere along the walk, he would say something that was really shallow, and she would get very angry. He never gave out any harsh punishments and avoided giving detentions unless they were absolutely necessary. But Lily didn't like that he was so lenient; students out of bed were literally committing crimes. And in her opinion, they definitely deserved to be punished if they couldn't follow a simple rule like that. 

A couple of weeks into school, the two headed to their first Heads' meeting with Professor Dumbledore. In a just a few minutes, they arrived in front of the gargoyles blocking the entrance of Dumbledore's office.

His face expressionless, James immediately said, "Cockroach cluster." However, the gargoyles remained still.

Lily let out a groan, kicking the stone in her frustration. "Ugh…Professor Dumbledore is really brilliant, but this is just getting annoying. Why does he always change the password without telling us? Let's just go back."

James shook his head. "No, since he scheduled the meeting, we have to try to get in. Bertie Bott's? No wait, he doesn't like them. Acid pops? Licorice? Madam Rosmerta's Oak Mead? Butterbeer? Hershey's Kiss?"

The gargoyle remained stiff, until a bright idea entered Lily's mind. "How about Lemon Drops?"

With a quick jerk, the gargoyles began moving. A smile playing at his lips, James replied, "Come on, Evans. We don't want to be late."

Throwing James a spiteful look, Lily said, "Don't order me around, Potter."

He shot her a nasty look. "Shut up, Evans."

Lily rolled her eyes and knocked gently on the Headmaster's door, walking into his office. "Hello, Professor."

Dumbledore neatly folded his hands together on the table, a small smile decorating his face. "Come in, come in. We have much to discuss."

James and Lily took the seats he gestured to, after which Dumbledore began, "Thank you for typing up the Hogsmeade weekend dates that you have planned for this year, Lily. Since the first weekend will be in three weeks, I would like you to give a speech to all of the new third years about the delights to be found and rules to be followed while visiting the village, and I'd highly appreciate it if you could collect the forms and give them to the heads of their respective houses."

James nodded. "Yeah, I can talk to the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, and Lily will talk to the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. When should we do this, sir?"

Dumbledore scribbled a couple of words on a spare bit of parchment, handing it James with a reassuring smile. "You both will talk to all of the houses on Saturday at four o' clock, unless, of course, one of you two has something else to do."

Lily shook her head, but James frowned. "Well, sir, I was thinking of having a Quidditch practice then…"

The redhead just rolled her eyes. "Professor Dumbledore, I'm sure he can always reschedule it. It is just a Quidditch practice, after all, and this is much more important."

She kicked him under the desk, and he winced in pain. "Ow!"

Dumbledore looked amused. "Is there a problem?"

When Lily nudged him with a death glare, James hastily said, "No sir. But it's okay, like Lily said, I'll just reschedule the practice. We'll put this paper up on the school notice board so that everyone knows."

Dumbledore stood up, pacing. "Yes, thank you, and that reminds me, have all the Quidditch team members been selected?"

Lily grabbed her notes binder. "Yes Sir, would you like me to tell you who the members are?"

Dumbledore sat down again. "No, that's alright, if you'll just hand me that paper… I am sure both you and James have other things to do, so I will not waste your time asking you to recite the members and their positions. Have you talked to all of the Quidditch captains about their responsibilities and how to handle captaining yet?"

Lily uncomfortably shifted. "Oh, I 'm so sorry, sir. I completely forgot about that. I guess I'll just have to do that sometime before the first game. Which reminds me… The first game is scheduled for November 21st, early in the morning, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin."

Dumbledore nodded absently. "That seems to be in order. Have you decided the timings for the Hogsmeade weekends yet?"

James replied, "Yes Sir. We've decided that the timings would be from 8:00 to 6:00, if that's alright with you?"

Dumbledore looked deep in thought. "Yes, I think that should suffice; have you talked to the presidents of all of the clubs here at Hogwarts?"

Lily nodded. "We talked to all of the prefects about their duties, and I've talked to all the presidents of different clubs. Gobstones, Wizarding Chess, History and Debate, etc… They've all agreed to make sure their meetings are on different days and don't interfere with Quidditch practices and games. It was such a headache, and it took forever to decide on all the dates and times, and we've still got a few major clashes, but there's simply nothing I can do about them, sir."

Dumbledore tried to manage a smile. "Oh that's alright, Lily. As long as the biggest disputes have been settled… Also, you both didn't really specify about other activities you would like to plan this year. The Heads are in charge of graduation with the prefects, of course, but other than that..."

When Dumbledore trailed off, James eagerly said, "We had discussed having a Valentine's Day dance, Professor."

Lily nodded, but inwardly scowled at the memory. James had thought they should have a dance of some kind because all of the students expected it and would really enjoy it, but Lily didn't really care either way. It had ended in a rather long-winded argument over nothing, but Lily had finally agreed in the end after tiring of their disagreement.

Dumbledore interrupted her flow of thoughts. "Well, you two can begin planning that right after the holidays. You both will need to compile lists for those that wish to stay at the school for the holidays as well, but you needn't worry about that quite yet. I may also require your services for the Halloween feast, but I will let you know more about that in the coming weeks. Other than that, keep on top of the prefects and let me know if there are any troubles."

Dumbledore eyed the two of them and noticed their detached silence from each other. He frowned at their distance. "Anything else you two would like to add?"

They both shook their heads as Dumbledore continued, "Good, James, I do have one question for you. Something I heard about just today."

James looked at him curiously and upon seeing a certain twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes, he gulped and sank a bit in his chair. "Yes, Sir?"

"Were you the expert behind the prank of dying Mr. Snape's face bright red and turning his hair a bright gold color?"

James paled a bit while Lily smirked at the look on his face. She expected him to lie but was surprised when he answered honestly, although it looked somewhat forced. "Yes, Sir."

Dumbledore just chuckled, "I thought so. A nice bit of magic, yes, but I think you can use your talents in more appropriate ways. It took Madam Pomfrey more than a few hours to rectify the change."

James sheepishly said, "Sorry sir. I won't do it again."

Dumbledore folded his hands on the table, lowering his spectacles. "Okay then, thank you for your efforts, both of you. I'll see you in a month."

Lily was appalled that James hadn't gotten into any trouble, and she kept throwing him nasty glances, occasionally shaking her head and muttering insults under her breath. When they were both out of ear-shot, she heard James let out a long breath like he had just been ratted out by his parents. She rolled her eyes. "What makes you so special that you seem to get away with everything?"

James scowled as they walked through the corridors toward the Heads' Dorm. "Dumbledore, unlike you, thinks most of our pranks are funny. Don't be so harsh, Evans."

Lily scrunched up her nose and narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah right, Potter. That's the lamest lie I've ever heard in my life."

James just remained silent and endured her usual tirade.

"I can't stand you, Potter! You and your self-righteous attitude! How Dumbledore and you are so chummy is beyond me. How come you and the Marauders get away with everything? That is completely unfair, and you know it! When will you grow up?"

When James remained silent even after her long shouting match, Lily just scowled and waved her hands in frustration. Looking extremely fed up, she tore off in a huff, not even walking into the Heads' Dorm and just swinging her legs through the library doors.

James threw his books to the floor in frustration. He didn't know how long he could continue holding his tongue and keeping his patience with her. He had no idea why she hated him so much. If anything, he had been walking on eggshells around her since they had arrived. He practically let her say whatever she wanted to him, not caring if what she said was false or hurtful.

It was beginning to bother him, although what bothered him more was that he still liked her. Immensely. She was absolutely beautiful—there was no question about that. She also was incredibly kind to _most_ people; he personally saw her go out of her way to help anyone many a time. She was brilliant, strong-willed, hard-working, and ambitious. She didn't let anything anyone said about her bother her; well, except for what he said. And yet, now that she had been so cold and biting towards him for the last two weeks, he, for the first time, wished he didn't like her so much. It would make things so much easier.

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	3. Chapter 3

It had been another grueling three weeks at Hogwarts. Homework was being piled on at a mile a minute, and most students, fifth year and above, were having lots of trouble keeping up with all of their work. Due to this, many people had been dropping their extracurricular activities. James was one of the few who were somehow not finding the pressure to be overwhelming. He had finally managed to get together a decent Quidditch team in the spare time he had.

That day had been their second official practice together, and of course, something had to ruin it.

James played chaser and had two veterans in the other two chaser positions, sixth year, Celia Host, and fifth year, Jason Foray. His beaters were Sirius, who had been on the team with him since third year, and Dorcas, one of his good friends. His seeker was another returner and oldest, Hailey. His keeper was another new recruit, sixth year, Daniel Tan. James had been playing the position of Seeker for quite a while, but he decided that he liked Chasing far better.

The team worked well together, though James was quite a bit wary of Daniel. He had asked Lily out, and being the overprotective boy that he was, James tended to dislike all of the people who felt attracted to Lily, especially the ones whom James felt like wouldn't take care of her properly.

Seeker Hailey was so petite and an amazing flyer, so you could barely see her when she was in the air. Of course, she had managed to pull a Nimbus 1900, the latest model yet. She would zoom through the air so quickly it would be hard to even sight her.

Sirius, who was chaos unto himself in the beater position, had been working with Dorcas a bit extra, and at the practice today, they seemed to be working on the same wavelength. Sirius was thoroughly pleased with this arrangement, but Dorcas was rather appalled. Sirius had been crushing on and chasing after Dorcas, who was half-veela and immensely beautiful, for ages, though James didn't like her in that way, arguing that their personalities weren't very compatible and she'd be better off as just a friend. Dorcas, being the stubborn and persistent girl she was, just like Lily, had been refusing Sirius since forever. In fact, James knew it would be so much easier if he had fallen for Dorcas instead of Lily.

James, Jason, and Celia had been doing nothing but drills and developing odd plays to get the Quaffle past their keeper. They all had been playing together for the last two years and were practically mind readers as to how each of them would play. Daniel was good too, especially in anticipating a lot of their own moves, so James was hoping he'd do well against other teams.

That day, they had been forced to share half the field with the Slytherin team. Of course, the practice was supervised so as to not let anything get out of hand, seeing as the first match of the season was Gryffindor vs. Slytherin and was approaching soon. This didn't stop the Slytherin team, however.

Malfoy, being the idiot that he was, shot a bludger directly at Dorcas, rendering her unconscious and in the hospital wing. He, of course, had said it was an unfortunate accident and as Captain, was merely showing his new beater the proper way to direct a bludger. James had sworn so loudly when he heard this pitiful excuse that he scared some wandering first-years. Because of Dorcas' injuries, James had to cancel practice for the next few days, and he was worried about his friend's health. This put him in an extremely foul mood.

When James finally approached the Heads' Dorm, he let out a long sigh. In addition to his Quidditch stresses, Lily had also been driving him crazy. She was hot one minute and cold the next. Every other minute, she would be kind towards him, and then suddenly, she would freak out on him for some minute detail. He wasn't sure if she was truly frustrated with him or was having trouble coping with the stresses of seventh year. Besides occasionally asking her to the first Hogsmeade weekend (which she had been outright refusing), he had no idea why she would be angry with him. He was, after all, trying his best not to act to self-centered around her, but it just didn't seem to work.

When he opened the door, he saw her sitting on the couch writing a long essay. She had books open, parchment everywhere, and her quill neatly in her hand, dipped into the ink. When she glanced up, her face soured. "Potter? Don't you have Quidditch practice for three hours?"

James clenched his fist, grasping the leather of the couch. "I live here too, Evans."

"I know, but I was just hoping for three hours of peace. Now you're back early and have ruined my mood."

"So what if I'm back early? It's not like I'm going to bother you! Besides, it's not my fault, you know. Malfoy and his stupid cronies hit a bludger at one of my teammates, so now she's unconscious. I can't exactly control that, can I? Besides, I can choose to end practice early. I'm the captain, and I can do whatever I want."

Lily narrowed her eyes at him menacingly, for he rarely defended his actions, not that he had any reason too, seeing how arrogant he was. "Get over yourself, Potter. You really think you are Merlin's gift to this world, don't you? Why don't you find one of the other Gryffindor girls who agree with you?"

James knew he shouldn't be arguing with her. He was tired, angry already, and she was pushing at his buttons. "God, Evans! I like you! Not one of those jerks, not that you even care!"

Lily got up off of the floor, dusting off her uniform. She was getting sick of him telling her he liked her. He hadn't shown her any specific evidence that this was true, so she knew it must be a bet with the Marauders. "God, Potter. I'm sure you're just saying you like me for a stupid bet. It's pitiful just imagining how much money has been pooled to imagine that you've been going after me for three whole years. Well guess what, Potter? I don't want to get hurt. And I'll never go out with you. Why don't you leave me alone for once? All you seem to do is make my life a living hell."

When James turned back toward her, she imperceptibly leaned back from the fire in his eyes. She had never seen him look that angry before, especially at her, and it was more than a little unnerving.

He lashed out, "Fine! God, Evans, how could you even imagine that I would like you for a bet? I'm not that cruel, and if you think I am, then you have major issues! I have been extremely nice to you for this whole month! Okay, maybe I am a little self-centered and arrogant, but who cares? Everyone has flaws, and you need to accept that fact! I have done every stupid thing you have asked of me! I have let you rant all you want about how I'm the lowest of the low, and frankly, I'm sick of it! I refuse to take any more of your crap! God only knows why I thought I liked you! You're impossible to please! Impossible! When will you ever get it through your head that I'm not a jerk? In fact, I'm one of the few nice guys in this institution! But you will never accept that, will you? How about _you_ leave me alone, you princess!"

Lily was shaking a bit and looked close to tears by the end of his tirade. James let out a long breath, growling in frustration. He felt extremely guilty for making her cry, and he knew he should apologize, but he just couldn't do it at the moment. Instead, he strolled over to his room and watched as without his wand, it opened quickly and slammed behind him. But after a couple of seconds, he opened it back up again. "Oh, and Dorcas is in the hospital wing."

Lily remained sitting on the couch, not knowing what to do. The tears that had threatened to slip out eventually did. Shaking, she collected all of her things and ran into her room, slamming the door behind her. Everything she was holding dropped to the floor as she jumped onto her bed, stuffing her face into a pillow and screaming into it as hard as she could. As she cried softly, tears slipping from her eyes, she tried to think James an asshole for everything he had just said and done, but for some reason, she couldn't. He was right. He was completely right about everything. That just made her feel worse.

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	4. Chapter 4

As Lily made her way down to the Great Hall for breakfast the next morning, she still felt awful, and her face was tear-stained. James had already left by the time she had gotten up that morning, so she hadn't had a chance to properly apologize, not that she would have been able to say anything to him face-to-face. She had done her best to look unaffected and calm, but inside, she wanted to hide in her room all day and do nothing.

When she made her way into the dining hall, she noticed a few Gryffindors stare at her curiously before she sat down next to Dor, who was completely healed by the time Lily had a chance to visit her later in the night. Lily's other best friend Aishu looked up at her with concern. "What's going on?"

Lily merely shrugged and forced herself to appear nonchalant. "Nothing."

Her nervous friend slowly shook her head. "No, it's not. James came into the Gryffindor common room early this morning and was looking pretty angry about something. Even Sirius couldn't coax it out of him. I'm not the only Gryffindor who has noticed. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole school doesn't notice James being pissed off by the end of the day."

Lily glanced at where James and the Marauders were sitting and noticed his hardened expression right away. "I really don't want to talk about it."

Dorcas nodded, but still appeared concerned. "You know, you can always talk to me if you need to, right?"

"I know. I'll tell you, eventually. I just need some time."

With a nod, Dorcas reassuringly squeezed Lily's hand, letting go after a few moments, after which they both went back to eating. Lily noticed the dirty blonde-haired girl approach the rather stoic James out of the corner of her eye. She put her hands on the back of his shoulders, and he visibly flinched at the contact. The Ravenclaw leaned down and whispered something in his ear, but he just nodded curtly before telling her what appeared to be 'just leave me alone.' The girl looked at him spitefully, patted him on the back, and walked away.

After a couple of minutes, Lily and Dorcas got out of their seats, heading over to the Transfiguration classroom, where James and Sirius were already sitting in the back. The two walked quickly over to the right where they usually sat, hastily taking their seats. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and began class. "Good morning, everyone. Today, we are going to try and do a bit of practical work. We are going to be using the 'transotio' spell, which we had been going over in the last class. Now that we know the theory and have practiced changing our desks into small invertebrates, I now want you to be changing your desks into a small vertebrate. This will be a bit more difficult for some of you, so I will be offering help throughout class as well as in the mornings and after classes. If you would like, you may certainly come for tutoring. I assure you, this spell will be very important for your N.E.W.T.S, so please make sure you have learned it properly. Okay then, you may begin."

All of the students, except the Marauders, began attempting the spell. Lily noticed Sirius and Remus trying to coax James to open up, but he was refusing all attempts and remained sitting sullenly.

With an angry sigh, acknowledging that Potter was being rather harsh to her, Lily began to ignore him and went back to her work. Whenever Lily tried, her desk would turn into a slug with slimy skin that would bounce right back up from the floor, like a slinky. After half an hour of practicing, everyone's attention was drawn to Professor McGonagall as she spoke, "Mr. Potter."

Everyone turned to look because you would have to have been blind not to notice that James was sitting in stony silence, withdrawn from all people, and was not attempting the spell at all. James glanced up leisurely at his name, but maintained his cold disposition. "Yes, Professor?"

James was usually enthusiastic about Transfiguration, and if he never slacked off or played hooky. Though he wasn't exactly playing hooky, he was nearly doing the equivalent of that, refusing to complete any class work.

Professor McGonagall knew he was exceptional at Transfiguration, but he had always given her the respect of participating, regardless if he thought the spell easy. To see him slack off was a bit unnerving. "Are you going to attempt this spell?" 

James looked her over, considering her words. He knew that he couldn't just sulk all day and ignore his class work, so he slowly pulled out his wand. Afterwards, he merely looked at his desk, and without saying a word, moved his wand in a particular way. His desk turned into a giant black dog that scampered across the room. The Marauders all began to laugh, although no one knew why. It was just a dog after all. Sirius was smiling, but he coughed into his hands—something that sounded like 'show off.'

Professor McGonagall looked a bit surprised and looked even more so when James coaxed the dog over to him, had the dog sit, and changed the dog back into his desk, all without a single word. Everyone was wondering what she would do, but with a sigh, she simply patted him on his shoulder. "20 points to Gryffindor. Mr. Potter, please see me after class. The rest of you, please continue."

Everyone was positively mystified by what had just transpired. James was now staring moodily out the window, again doing nothing and not caring what people were thinking about him. Lily understood that he had just performed an amazing bit of Transfiguration, something they probably would not even get to until another four weeks or more of course work. Not only that—he had done it nonverbally.

After class, James waited patiently for each of his classmates to leave before approaching Professor McGonagall stiffly. He was about to apologize for his behavior when Professor McGonagall cut him off with her hand. "No, it's nothing bad, Potter. I always knew you felt a little bored in my classes. Professor Dumbledore informed me near the start of the year that you had been studying his ancient books on Transfiguration over the summer and have become rather versed in the subject. I think it would be best if I merely scheduled an extra hour sometime where you and I could go over more advanced Transfiguration. I would still like you to attend the regular classes, though, to refresh your memory and to help me with the other students."

James nodded, looking curious. "Could Sirius come to the extra lessons too? He and I both have mastered the seventh year texts, and I'd like to have a companion."

If Professor McGonagall was surprised about this request, she didn't show it. "That would be fine if he would like to come." She surveyed him as he nodded absently. "Is everything all right? You seem a bit off color today."

James shook his head at her question. "I'll be fine, Professor. Thanks for the extra lessons." Then, he suddenly threw her a devilish smile. "You know, you could always ask Sirius to tutor some students. I'm sure he would love that."

Professor McGonagall merely chuckled. "Thank you for offering, Potter, but I'm sure the thought of Sirius doing any tutoring would scare many students rather than help them."

James snorted, bursting in laughter and quickly walking out of the room, a smile still etched on his face. Professor McGonagall was curious as to his behavior, but was somewhat relieved to see him smile a bit. Hopefully, whatever was wrong would smooth over eventually.

By the end of that day, everyone knew something must have happened between James and Lily, although no one knew exactly what it was, other than those two, of course. From that day on, the Head Boy and Girl never spoke to each other, at least, not willingly. I mean, they were required to speak to each other for Head's Duties and whatnot, but otherwise... Not one word.

James always wore a stony expression whenever he needed while Lily began to look more and more depressed in his vicinity and just in normal life too. Sirius and Remus had tried getting James to just talk with Lily about whatever had happened, as he had never really discussed what had occurred between them exactly. Lily, similarly, was hearing from Dorcas and Aishu to do the same thing. Needless to say, to get away from the pressure of their friends, the trio had stayed at school while everyone else went to Hogsmeade that weekend.

James was really more angry at himself than at Lily for what he had said. He could tell Lily was taking everything he had said to heart or too personally and was being incredibly hard on herself. He highly suspected she wasn't eating right either. Every night, she holed herself up in her room. This made him feel incredibly guilty. He wasn't sure if he could apologize for what he had said though, mainly because minus the harsh words and his tone, most of what he had said was true.


	5. Chapter 5

James and Lily didn't speak with each other after 'the incident.' After a week passed and Lily gained her confidence, she tried apologizing to him, but Remus came to her instead. "I've got a message from James."

"What is it?"

He replied, "He doesn't want you to apologize. He said that he wants you to 'just back off.'"

The redhead was unhappy but reluctantly replied, "Well you tell him that I'll do that and that I'm sorry anyways."

Remus reassuringly said, "He'll catch on, Lily. He didn't mean what he said."

Lily shook her head. "No Remus, he did mean what he said, and he had every right to say that. He did what I asked him to do, and he was extremely polite towards me, but all I did was yell at him. And you know what? I think James and I are just not supposed to be friends, though I feel terrible about everything I've done, and I just wish this would all blow over. It seems like we argue way too often to even get along, so I don't think this will work. So think about it this way; I'm glad he doesn't like me anymore."

"But see the thing is, I'm not sure if he doesn't like you anymore. I think he still likes you, Lily." Remus added with the tiniest of smiles.

"Not a chance, Remus. Not a chance." The redhead said over her shoulder, walking away slowly and entering the Great Hall for breakfast.

A few minutes later, a pretty girl with mousy brown hair and warm brown eyes staggered into the room, supporting herself with a cane.

Frank, a good friend of Lily's, attacked the girl from behind, pulling her into a hug joyfully.

She laughed, her eyes twinkling. The redhead ran over to her, closely followed by Dor, who pulled her into an embrace.

"Hey guys."

"Hey, Al!"

The brunette smacked Lily on the head. "Don't call me that."

Dor smiled at her. "All better, Al?"

"Didn't I say to stop calling me that?!"

Dor laughed. "Fine, as you wish, Ali."

"That's much better."

Annoyed, Lily remarked, "In case you were wondering, the question was "are you better?" not 'what do you prefer to be called?''"

"Of Course I'm better! I'm great! I'm amazing!"

Aishu approached them from behind, a smirk resting on her face. "Looks like Professor Flitwick overdid your Cheering Charm, Alice."

They all erupted into laughter, but after a few minutes, Ali hushed them up, inquiring, "What about you guys? Are you alright?"

"Yeah. But there's just so much drama."

Ali asked the girls a few questions, and they all munched on their breakfasts, twirling their forks through sugary oatmeal and poking at cheese omelets, having a grand time reconciling with their best friend. But Lily's laughter didn't last for long.

After a couple of minutes, James walked in, hand in hand with Ashley, Lily's worst enemy (aside from the Slytherins) and James' admirer. He gave her a light kiss, chauffeuring her towards the Gryffindor table and sitting her down with a flourish.

As soon as he draped an arm around the blonde's shoulder, she menacingly turned towards Lily, a triumphant, blazing look in her eyes.

Lily fumed, clenching her fist along the checkered tablecloth. She knew she shouldn't care about them getting together, but she was feeling so many emotions at once. Jealousy. _How the hell did Ashley, the terrible jerk, persuade James to like her?_ Anger. _What is wrong with James? How could he forget me so quickly? How could he move on so quickly?_ It wasn't any of her business, but Lily felt tears welling up in her eyes.

Scooting along the bench, Ashley sat right next to the redhead, smirking. Lily pretended to be indifferent, but on the inside, she felt like she was suffocating to death. James, meanwhile, glared at Lily venomously, if anything, pulling the blonde closer to him, almost as if rubbing it in Lily's face that he was over her.

Lily felt stung, but she didn't say anything, just violently poking her fork at her food. Ashley smiled sweetly at her, "May we sit next to you, Lily?"

Lily thought, _What is she playing at? She's being sweet. Oh, she is playing a hard game, that girl. But what she doesn't know is that she's playing with fire. If we're going to play this game, I am definitely going to be the winner. There's no doubt about that! _

Deep in thought, Lily replied, "Of course, Ashley. It would be my pleasure."

She looked pleasantly surprised. "Oh, I'm so glad that you'll allow us to sit here." Winking, she batted her eyelashes, almost taunting Lily, who played her boiling blood off with a half-smile.

"No problem. And congratulations, you two, the new boyfriend and girlfriend. I'm glad you've finally taken him off my case. He's the perfect guy for you."

Ashley looked taken aback and she hissed into the redhead's ear, "Aren't you angry?"

Nervously laughing, Lily asked, "No, why should I be? You're such a lucky girl, Ashley, and all the other girls are luckier. They won't be mad because they've got better guys. Now that James Potter has finally gotten himself into a relationship with someone, the girls are free to explore other, better candidates."

Ashley looked shocked, as if repulsed by the idea that someone was handsomer than James Potter. She hissed, "Who's better looking than my James?"

Someone put their hand on Lily's shoulder, startling her severely. She looked up, to see that it was a tall guy with straight, cropped brown hair and cute green eyes. He was very handsome, though he looked to be quite a few years older than her.

"Me."

Ashley looked up at him, shocked. He wasn't handsomer than James, in Lily's opinion, but he came pretty close. She smiled. "You don't go to Hogwarts, do you?"

"I graduated a few years earlier. The name is Walt."

Ashley, who seemed to agree with Lily that James was more handsome, scrutinized him. "Umm…you're not as handsome as James. Close, though."

Though Lily agreed with Ashley, she boldly commented, "Well that's a matter of opinion, Ashley. You're James' girlfriend, so you're inclined to think in a certain way. Everyone's opinions differ. Anyways, again, congratulations Ashley, on scoring yourself such a great boyfriend and opening up more possibilities for us Hogwarts girls."

Ashley stared at the redhead with such venom; if she were a Basilisk, Lily would be dead. The blonde hastily said, "I'm not very hungry anymore. Bye, everyone." Ashley ran out of the Great Hall, but not before she threw Lily a nasty look.

The redhead shook the stranger's hand. "This is Lily Evans. I'm so sorry. I didn't get around to introducing myself.

Walt threw her a reassuring smile. "Oh, that's alright, Lily. I'm Walt Lynch by the way."

"Nice to meet you. What brings you to Hogwarts, Walt?"

He replied, "I want to see if I can attain the post of Muggle Studies Professor."

Lily exclaimed, "Oh, that's great. So have you finished your education?"

"Yeah, I attended college in the Muggle World. You know…to get more used to their lifestyles because I'm absolutely fascinated with them."

Lily remarked, "Oh. Well, nice meeting you."

He shook the redhead's hand. "And you, Lily."

Once he walked away, Lily turned to face Alice, letting out a long breath.

The mousy-brown haired girl asked, "Okay, what was that whole James and Ashley episode all about?"

"A lot happened. James and Lily are Head Boy and Girl, so they were required to communicate pretty often. James said something to Lily, and then James just totally lost it. They got into this huge argument, and they haven't been speaking to each other for ages. And then, what do you know, after a week, James comes in with Ashley as his girlfriend." Dor explained.

Alice looked baffled. "Wow, a lot happened in just two months."

Lily nodded. "Yeah, it's been crazy. You missed a lot, Ali."

"Yeah, all because of stupid spattergroit." She sighed.

"Well, I have to go to Charms; what do you guys have next?" Lily inquired.

They both replied Transfiguration, so the redhead went on ahead by herself. On Lily's way, Black confronted her. "Hey Evans."

"What, Black?"

He chuckled. "I just realized something. You know, back in the hall, you were totally dissing Ashley, weren't you?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Language, Black. No, I wasn't dissing her, so to speak."

He laughed, running his hand along the rail. "Really? I saw everything that went on, Evans. I know what that was all about. No-one else in the room realized that you were attacking her, except for you and me, and maybe Ashley had a tiny clue about what was going on."

"So?"

"I've figured out that since you would never have the courage to talk meanly to her face—"

Lily smacked his arm, protesting, "Hey!"

He threw his hands up into the air. "It's true, girl! There were a load of teachers in that room, and you do not want to be branded a bad girl."

"Shut up."

Sirius continued, "So you were attacking her without anyone knowing it, Evans. Yup, that is what you were doing! I noticed it all. Very manipulative, too. You seem like one of these silent attack types, you know what I mean?"

Lily looked at him oddly. "Thank you for that very descriptive analysis of me, Black, though I think I know more about myself than you do."

He slyly remarked, "You were acting like a Slytherin."

The redhead indignantly remarked, "I was not! I'm a Gryffindor!"

"Really, then you should have attacked her full on, so that everyone could see it. Even Remus told me how you acted like a coward with Lucius and Bellatrix. You're such a coward and a weakling. Actually all girls are total weaklings, but—"

Lily slapped him so hard that he winced, stumbling. "What was that for, Evans?"

With a wild expression, Lily practically screamed, "Idiot! What is wrong with you? If people are talking so heinously about how I do not belong in Gryffindor, then I will prove to them that I do. I will prove to them that I am NOT a Slytherin! Just because I didn't yell in her face doesn't mean I am not a Gryffindor. It means I am not an obnoxiously mean person. If you know what is good for you, Black, you'd shut up and you'd tell your stupid Marauder friends to shut up about me. I hate people who gossip, and I hate people who tell me what they gossip about even more. Because they're jerks! Full on! If you know what's good for you, and if you want your body to stay in one piece after the end of our conversation, then you'd shut up. And leave me alone. You and your Marauders always focus on pranking people. You're so mean to everyone. Literally everyone! And you know what, I'm done with you! Maybe next time I will scream in her face, or maybe I won't scream in her face, maybe I'll scream in your face, you dolt! I'm speaking for everyone, girls, boys, teachers, everyone that you and your stupid gang have hurt. Physically, mentally, I don't care. You need to stop ratting out on people. You need to stop this nonsense. I don't care if everyone likes you, but underneath it all… You. Are. A. Total. Jerk!"

Sirius blinked a few times, stunned into silence, until his deep throaty laugh echoed throughout the corridor. "Well done, Red."

Lily snapped, "What's that you're calling me?"

"Red, you know, because your hair is red."

"Black, that is not a valid reason to call me Red."

He smirked. "Why can't I call you Red when you call me Black?"

"Because Black is your last name; Red isn't my last name."

Sirius flashed her a cocky smile. "Exactly, dear."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I have no clue what you're on about."

He flashed her a grin, "Then that's your problem, Evans."

After a few minutes, Aishu started walking with them, so Sirius turned to her and asked, "Go to Hogsmeade with me?"

She shot him a look full of contempt. "No."

A pouty look instantly covered Sirius' face. "Darn it!"

Dor walked up to them, chuckling. "Poor Black. He seems to be taking the rejection really badly. Oh and Black, if you like me so much, why would you ask all these other girls to go to Hogsmeade with you?"

She looked sincerely hurt, so Black stated, "Of course, none of these girls compare to you, but… I need _someone_ to go to Hogsmeade with me, and I know you won't!"

"Well, Black, that's a completely immoral thing to do."

Aishu nodded her consent, and Lily looked at Black murderously. "Jerk."

He stormed away. "Fine. Bad luck, once again. See you later."

Dor called to him. "Why do you even try? You know I'll never accept."

Sirius turned around, his eyes blazing. "Fine. Whatever. I don't care. I'm totally fed up with you, Dorcas. I really deserve someone better. You know what; we're over. I don't like you anymore, and I never will in the future."

Dorcas was rendered speechless, and they all stood there silently as Alice came running to them, bursting into tears. "Frank was kissing Jane."

Lily was shocked. "What! No, I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation, Alice. He's like, completely devoted to you."

Alice choked out. "No, he's not! It's my first day back; do I really deserve this?"

She cried immensely, so Lily took her into her arms, soothingly saying, "No, Alice. It'll be alright. I'll go find out what in the world is going on, because there's no way all the guys have decided to turn on us today! Especially not Frank since you're engaged! And Frank has been with you since forever! I'm going to find out what's going on."

Alice cried out, "No, you need to get to class. I'll be up in the dormitory."

Lily nodded, concerned. "Are you sure, Alice? Are you going to be alright? One of us can stay with you. Besides, there are going to thousands of girls in the dormitories. I think you want some peace and quiet."

"Yeah; I just need some time to be alone. I—I guess I'll just sit in an empty classroom or something."

Aishu reassured her. "No, no, Alice. You should stay in Lily's room. The password is Hazel Emerald; go on. We'll come visit you after class, and I am going to have a word with Frank."

She nodded. "Thanks—would one of you mind taking notes for me? Please?"

"Of course, Alice. I'll make sure to take notes and copy them for you."

She cried softly, tears running down her cheeks. "Thanks. I—I guess I'll see you later."

As she ran off into the distance, Dor sighed. "It's just after breakfast, and already, so much drama has happened."

Lily nodded. "Yeah, well, I'd best get going. I'll see you guys at lunch." She walked into the Charms classroom, trying her best to pay attention, though she was still pretty distracted because James and Ashley were playing footsie, and they sat close to each together… Ashley was practically sitting on his lap. And they were looking at each other so lovingly that it made Lily sick.

All throughout Charms, she tried to ignore the two of them, especially Ashley, who made it a point to kiss James with great fervor when Lily was looking, so the redhead was literally on the edge of her seat, waiting for the moment when the bell would ring. When they were released, she jogged into the Great Hall for lunch, where Frank was pacing frantically.

When he noticed Lily, he jogged up to her. "Where's Alice?"

She looked at him coldly. "No, Frank, I'm not telling you where she is until you answer this question. Why were you kissing Jane?"

He stumbled. "No, I—you see, I accidentally performed this charm wrong, and I said the wrong incantation, so it caused me to be sort of light-headed and giddy. That's why I kissed her."

"Are you telling the truth?"

He pleaded, "Yes, I swear. You can even ask Jane; she's over there talking to Xeno. Please, Lily, you've got to believe me. I swear I said the charm wrong and that's why. You know me, Lily. You know I'd never go behind Alice's back like this, especially not since we're engaged."

He looked sincerely upset, so Lily replied, "What was the charm?"

"Infitatus Mufflit. I was trying to spill Jane's drink onto her hair."

Lily looked disapprovingly at him. "You mean Infitatus Muffnit?"

Frank sighed. "Yeah, it was supposed to be Infitatus Muffnit, but I accidentally said Infitatus Mufflit."

"Hmm… I've never heard of the charm Infitatus Mufflit."

Frank huffed, "Yes, that's all very well, but I need to see Alice, right now. I can't stand her being so suspenseful. We're engaged for god's sakes, and I love her more than anything else in the world. I just can't stand it if she's mad at me, and for no good reason too. Where is she?"

"Hold it. I need to question Jane and give you Truth serum before I let you see her. Because if you're lying, and you kissed Jane of your own accord, she'll be devastated if you visit her. Besides, she doesn't want to see you right now."

Frank looked so hopeless, almost like a hurt puppy, that it made Lily feel guilty for restricting him from visiting her. It almost made her melt down when, his voice cracking, he said, "I thought she trusted me."

"She does, Frank. But anyone who sees their boyfriend kissing another girl would flip, no matter how much trust there is. She's still hoping that some kind of miracle occurred, and it was an accident, you know."

Frank protested, "It was an acc—"

Lily smoothly interrupted him, "I'll determine that, Frank. I'm sorry if you're telling the truth, but I need to investigate; I really don't want my best friend to get hurt. I'll see you later." Lily walked away, tapping Jane's shoulder. "So…what's this all—"

She got a dreamy look on her face. "Oh, I suppose you want to know the same thing as Xeno. I don't know why in the world Frank kissed me. Maybe he saw a Blibbering Humdinger and became giddy. That's one of the Blibbering Humdinger's effects, you know."

Lily blinked. "Umm…"

She continued, "I didn't really enjoy the kiss, you know. I always thought of him as my best friend, and for him to kiss me even when I'm dating Xeno was pretty awkward. Maybe he got a sudden burst of inspiration from the mistletoe… Well anyways, I saw him wave his wand and say this strange thing, "Ifnitati Miffanut" or something?"

"Infitatus Mufflit, you mean."

Jane snapped her fingers. "Yeah, that was it. And then all of a sudden his eyes became all weird, almost like he was floating in a different dimension, and he kissed me."

"Umm… Thanks for telling me, Jane. It's a great help."

She replied, "No problem, Lily. Well, I'll see you around; the Nargles are calling."

Lily was confused. Maybe Frank was telling the truth. He looked so innocent that Lily began to doubt that he actually kissed Jane of his own accord. Besides, Frank and Alice were one of the best couples around, voted as the best couple by many students in the 7th year, engaged in the summer, and head over heels in love since fourth year. They had been in love for three years, since they were fourteen, which was the longest lasting couple in Hogwarts, at least so far. And they were so in love with each other that they got engaged before they graduated from school and planned to elope right after graduation since their parents didn't exactly approve. So it was highly unlikely that Frank would ditch Alice…especially not after severely pining for her during the months she spent at St. Mungo's, being treated for spattergroit.

With a sigh, Lily performed the charm 'Infitatus Mufflit' on a rat to see what it would do, and it started stumbling around all weirdly. So the redhead understood that the charm definitely did make you giddy and light-headed. Unless Frank was a total expert at charms, (and he was not), then he wouldn't have known how to perform that spell.

For the final check, Lily went to Professor Slughorn's room hesitantly. "Sir, I was wondering if you could give me a batch of truth serum."

He looked baffled. "Now, whatever would you need truth serum for?"

"Just some personal stuff, sir."

He looked anxious. "Well, I suppose I can trust you not to give this to another student and use it for the wrong purposes, dear."

"Oh no. I wouldn't use it for a wrong purpose, sir. I'm Head Girl, you see."

Slughorn laughed, his eyes twinkling. "Of course, of course, Lily. Marvelous potioneer you are anyways, why couldn't you make the truth serum yourself?"

She blushed, replying, "Well, my need is urgent, and brewing truth serum would take awhile, so I wanted to get some from you."

He reached into his stock of supplies, rummaging through his cabinets and handing her a vial. "Of course you may have some. See you this afternoon, Lily."

"Goodbye Professor." Instantly, she sprinted back into the Great Hall and gave the Veritaserum to Frank, anxiously holding her breath. Lily asked him why he kissed Jane, and he replied the same thing from before, but this time, he said it in a monotonous voice.

"Okay let's go, Frank. I'll come with you; I need to tell her I checked with Veritaserum."

"Okay. Thank you for understanding, Lily."

She smiled. "Anything for my friend."

They walked into the Head Girl dormitory to find Alice sitting on the couch, boxes of tissues piled next to her, and James sitting next to her, an arm on her back as he consoled her.

Lily turned to Alice. "Hey, Ali. Are you feeling better?"

James replied, "She doesn't really want to talk right now, Evans."

Annoyed, Lily nearly screamed, "I'm her friend, you dolt!"

He shrugged. "Well, I think she just needs some space."

Huffing, Lily replied, "Please try to understand, James; this is important."

He closed his mouth, but he stared at her with a load of venom in his eyes. She felt sad and mad at the same time; he clearly didn't like her a bit anymore. All of his feelings were gone, and he was clearly heavily crushing on Ashley. A couple of weeks earlier, upon hearing this news, Lily would say that it was too good to be true. Now, her eyes would bulge out, and she would have a hard time grasping that concept. Most of all, she didn't understand why it mattered so much to her.

Without another thought, she turned to Alice. "Alice, I questioned Frank, I questioned Jane, and they were both questioned under the influence of Veritaserum. So you can rest assured that everything I'm saying is completely true. I asked Professor Slughorn for a batch of truth serum, and I poured it in Frank and Jane's drinks, and they replied the same as before. It's not Frank's fault; it was a badly performed charm."

Her eyes instantly lit up. "Really?!" Laughing nervously, she flew at Frank and engulfed him in a hug. James walked into his room, scowling, but smiling, Lily strolled casually into her room. She was still a bit depressed about the whole James issue, and she really hoped their rift would blow over quickly. Taking out a bit of stationery, she wrote a letter in neat cursive to him, hoping to resolve the issue.

_Dear James,_

_I'm so sorry. Everything you said was true, and I deserved that whole shouting match; I really did. I'm sorry, and I just really hope this rift will blow over. Friends?_

_Lily_

Handing it to her owl to fly over to James' room, she leaned over, nestling into her bed and falling into a comfy sleep, hoping that she and James would be okay with each other soon.


	6. Chapter 6

It was getting harder and harder for Lily to cope with James and Ashley's relationship; they were so sickeningly sweet, even in plain sight of teachers. Ashley especially made it a point to pull him into a kiss whenever Lily stood nearby. Those two were literally attached at the hip; it was sickening. Ashley was like a parasite; wherever James was, she latched onto him and refused to let go. James was pretty obnoxious too; when he had to talk to Lily, he addressed her with a cold, biting tone, continuing to follow Ashley around like a lovesick puppy.

A few days after Lily had written the letter to James, she was still anticipating his response. Due to the delay, Lily began to wonder whether he had gotten the letter at all. But she was very happy when the two of them, James and Ashley, entered the Great Hall. He had folded his arms, and he was beginning to snap at her a whole lot more.

The blonde looked frantic, rummaging through her pockets desperately, struggling to remain calm. Finally, she sat down across from the redhead saying, "James dear, please drink your pumpkin juice."

Watching carefully, like a hawk, Lily was baffled; why did she want him to drink the pumpkin juice? James must have been thinking along the same lines as Lily, for he snarled, "Why Ashley?"

She soothingly whispered, "No no, it's alright, James. Please, for me, drink it." He shrugged, raising the crystal glass to his lips. As he drank, Lily observed Ashley smirking and stowing a vial of pink liquid into her robe cautiously.

Her mouth wide open, thoughts were racing through Lily's head, as she suddenly became suspicious. That bit of pink liquid really did look like love potion, at least in her opinion. Hmm… She started considering if this was how she'd gotten him into her clutches.

Later in the day, Lily decided to investigate into matters more by splitting Ashley's bag in half, causing a few vials of pink potion to spill out onto the floor. Hiding around the corner of a wall, the redhead whispered 'Diffindo', spilling the potion.

After Ashley hastily picked up the vials and scurried away, Lily walked to the spot where the potion had spilt, sniffing the contents. Amortentia, yes definitely. To her it smelt a bit fruity, like chocolate strawberries, the crisp scent of fresh parchment, and something she couldn't place; it smelt like cologne, something that she'd definitely smelt before. The redhead shook her head, viewing the characteristic steamy pink spirals, knowing that Ashley was using love potion to attract James.

Thoughts were racing through Lily's mind, and she finally decided that she would have to put an end it. Not only was Ashley breaking a bunch of rules; James was also being affected. He was forced to fall in love with a girl he absolutely despised.

Later on in the day, when Ashley was walking alone in a corridor, Lily crept up behind her, petrifying her, "Petrificus Totalus." With a gasp, she fell to the floor, her arms outstretched and mouth wide open.

Lily walked next to her, saying in a fake, sweet voice, "I'm so sorry. My spell must have accidentally hit you. I was aiming for the wall in order to practice, but it ended up hitting you. Well, I'm so sorry; I forgot how to reverse the spell. I'll just take you into the Head's Dormitory and put you in an armchair, alright?"

True to her words, the redhead grabbed her wand and levitated Ashley into her room, dropping her onto an armchair. When the blonde wasn't looking, Lily cast an Invisibility spell on her, making sure to use all of her strength so that it would last overnight, "Okay Ashley, I need to find Professor Dumbledore; he'll reverse the spell. I heard he's out of the school, so just wait here for awhile, alright? James will probably come visit you."

Lily walked away, chuckling softly to herself. If she couldn't give James the love potion the next morning, the potion would wear off, and James would realize the truth. And tomorrow, Lily would undo the spells. Oh, James would get so mad at Ashley. It would be rather amusing to see his reaction; Lily definitely didn't think she was being cruel to her. The blonde had tortured her for years, and now she was unrightfully claiming James as her own.

As James walked into the room, he frantically said, "Have you seen Ashley?" He was wearing a handsome black suit and a blue tie, shifting nervously on one foot.

Lily looked at him, unable to take the smirk off of her face, "Umm…yes, why?"

"We were supposed to meet an hour ago for our date."

She raised an eyebrow, "Well, I'm terribly sorry James, but she asked me to tell you that she doesn't want to go."

He was suspicious, "I don't believe you. Why wouldn't she want to go? She was all over me for ages."

"She wants to go with you, obviously, but just not today. She said to say that she's in no fit state to go. Apparently she's not feeling too well."

He looked rather concerned, "Oh, okay. Is she alright?"

Lily shot him a reassuring smile, "Perfectly dandy."

He sighed, "Okay, well thanks for letting me know."

Unable to resist the opportunity, Lily asked, "What was that?"

He gritted his teeth, "Thank you, Evans."

When he disappeared from the room, Lily giggled, feeling her heart soar; the potion's effects were already starting to wear off. By the next day, Ashley would be as disgusting as a maggot to him.

After a few hours of sleep, Lily clambered off of her cot, quickly changing into a fresh pair of clothes and brushing her hair up into a high ponytail. A few minutes later, she calmly walked into the Great Hall where James was sitting, thinking about Ashley but looking the slightest bit nervous about the whole setup. Pretending that everything was fine, even though a huge smile was on her face, Lily looked at her watch. The potion's effects would wear off, about NOW!

James exploded from his seat, gagging, "Eww! I kissed Ashley Parker. Disgusting! Ugh… She gave me a stinking love potion."

Everyone in the hall looked stunned, but Lily just burst into laughter, her voice echoing through the hall.

James looked at Lily with a guilty expression on his face, "And you, I'm sorry. The only reason I never properly apologized to you was because—"

Lily held her hand up, "We can talk in the Head's common room, James. First, finish your breakfast."

So he began chomping on his breakfast, occasionally remarking, "Eww… Parker. I'm gonna kill her."

Aishu turned to me, "Wow, that was a big surprise."

Dorcas just smiled, "I knew that something was up all along! She is so not his type."

Alice looked shocked, "Then why didn't you say something about it, Dor?"

She rolled her eyes, "Well, I didn't know _what_ was up. I just knew something was up. What about you, Lily?"

"Well, I know the full story. I was the one who saw her pouring love potion into James' pumpkin juice. And then I investigated; it was Amortentia. So I petrified Ashley, and she's laying there now in the Head's Dormitory."

Aishu was astonished, "It was you who figured it out!"

Dor snorted, "Well obviously it was her, Aishu. We all know how much of a whiz she is at anything that has to do with Potions."

She blushed as Aishu and Alice nudged her, smiling. After breakfast, James and she walked into the Common Room. Along the way, he was quiet, though he kept shooting her friendly smiles, thinking about how he would start a conversation with her when they returned to the dormitory.

The instant they walked through the portrait, he remarked, "I'm really sorry about what I said before, Lily. I was just really frustrated at the time. I—I really didn't mean it."

Lily shook her head, "No, James. What you said was true. I was acting very horrible to you, even though you didn't do anything wrong."

"Thanks, but either way, I shouldn't have ranted like that at you."

Lily nervously said, "James, I think you should know that I petrified Ashley so that the love potion would wear off."

He looked surprised and ran at the redhead, engulfing her in a hug, "Thank you so much! If you hadn't realized that she was poisoning me, then I would've been stuck with her forever!"

"You're welcome. Do you want to see her?"

James looked extremely angry; his face was red and puffy, and he looked as if he were about to blow up, "You know where she is?"

"Yeah."

"Show me!"

Nervously shifting, Lily said, "Umm…I don't think that's a good idea."

He snarled, "Don't you think I deserve to see that jerk?!"

Lily threw her hands up into the air, "Fine! Fine!" She quickly undid the Disillusionment Charm and the Petrifying Charm.

Ashley sat up quickly, pure fury emanating from her face as she glared at the redhead. She began, "You little—"

Before she could finish her sentence, James slapped her face, and Lily winced as he spat, "How dare you try to fool me with love potion?!"

She stared at Lily murderously, shooting him a look of contempt. Taking out her wand, Ashley pointed it at Lily, "Cru—"

James looked extremely horrified, slamming into Ashley. She yelped and dropped her wand as pushed her up against the wall, his hands tightening on her throat.

Shocked, Lily stepped in front of James, "What are you doing? You could seriously hurt her!"

He snarled, "She tried to use the Cruciatus Curse on you, Lily. That's illegal."

"I know, but stop! We'll hand her over to Dumbledore and see what punishment he gives her."

James released her reluctantly, "Fine."

Grabbing her arm, Lily said, "We'll take her up to his office, okay?"

James agreed, and they started walking, dragging her along though she screamed and tried to bite Lily, resisting their force.

His eyes venomous, James said, "Don't you dare try to hurt us, Ashley! Don't you think you've done enough harm?"

After a couple of minutes of silence, James perked up, "Hey Lily, I know this sort of a bad time to be asking, but can we be friends?"

A smile crept over Lily's face, "Yeah, sure."

When they took Ashley to Dumbledore, he clucked, angrily reprimanding the blonde and calling her parents with an suspension letter ready in his hand. A huge smile was plastered on Lily's face, and if anything, it got bigger when James kissed her on the cheek, rushing out to the Quidditch field for practice.

Lily knew it was only a friendly gesture; it was only on the cheek, after all. But still… She found herself sort of hoping that James would get attracted to her but also desperately hoping that she wouldn't fall for him. I mean, she had been despising him, wishing that he would just disappear off of the planet, for more than six years.

And then, all of sudden, things seemed to have flipped. She completely fell over the edge, and Lily knew it. She was just trying to deny it. Because it was dangerous. The thought that she, the goody-goody, could like the arrogant, hot-headed, rude, condescending, pompous, mean, self-righteous, and overconfident James Potter…was just outrageous. Out. Rage. Ous.

He, meanwhile, still liked Lily. A lot. And he was tingling at the thought she might, just a tiny bit, like him back. James was beginning to experience more of Lily's flaws, like her veiled vision, literal thinking, temper, and stubbornness, but if anything, it just intensified his crush on her.

In fact, to an outsider, it seemed that all was well, and the two were great friends. But James and Lily both had conflicting emotions in their minds, and neither of them wanted to make a move forwards. Based on the direction they were headed in, it seemed almost certain that they'd never get together.


	7. Chapter 7

Though they were fine with each other, James and Lily had been doing their nightly patrols solo every other night, like James had suggested on the Hogwarts' Express. When Lily would go, James would watch the Marauders' Map, just to make sure she was alright by herself.

At first thought, other people might find this routine a bit stalker-like, and James understand where they were coming from, but he knew what he was doing was right. The other students were rather harsh to her for whatever reason, and the Slytherins would probably love to catch her alone. Most of the time, she found herself out of harm's way.

With a sigh, noting that it was getting late, and Lily was heading back to the dorm, James was just about to close the Map when he noticed movement in the hallway at the base of the astronomy tower. It was Bellatrix and Malfoy, heading in Lily's direction.

James immediately pocketed the Map and grabbed his wand, hoping to head them off. He knew Lily could probably take care of herself, but there were two of them, and James knew that Malfoy had been training under Voldemort, learning especially dark spells.

James wandered quickly and cautiously over to the astronomy tower, trying not to make any noise. He knew that those two shouldn't' have been out of bed; Malfoy wasn't even a prefect.

The hazel-haired boy just hoped he wouldn't be too late to stop whatever chaos they were planning on starting. After all, it had already been a few minutes since he noticed them on the map. When he turned the corner, panting heavily, he was horrified by what he saw.

Lily was on the ground, withering and her mouth wide open, though no sound could be heard. Malfoy looked very satisfied, holding his wand far away from him, and Bella was laughing like a hyena behind him.

James immediately pummeled them with sharp jets of light. Malfoy was hit dead on, but Bella swiveled around just in time, deflecting it with a flourish and smiling cruelly at him. "Well, if it isn't James Potter, coming to save his little girlfriend, although he should know that he could have all the riches in the world if he would just listen to me."

Lily was shaking like a leaf and slowly began to pull herself towards the wall, struggling to regain her balance. She looked around for her wand, her eyes twitching, but it lay a few feet away behind James, and she had no energy whatsoever to even move.

James had no idea how long she had been held under the curse, but it looked long enough to cause her to be weak to the point of near unconsciousness. He kept his wand out on Bella and said, "Shut it, Bella. What the hell do you think you're doing, using the Cruciatus curse in Hogwarts? Are you out of your mind? That's illegal!"

Bella just laughed. "Come on James, what's the big deal? You know you should just join our side. Who cares about the muggle borns anyway? We could be great together, you know. The Dark Lord agrees because he knows I'll take good care of you, and you'd be a powerful asset. Our parents thought we'd be great together too."

James' eyes narrowed as he practically hissed, "I bet you would love that, wouldn't you? In case you have forgotten, my parents were appalled when your parents brought that disgusting agreement for us to be betrothed over to our house when we were _eleven_ years old. Not only did my parents vehemently deny the agreement, but I personally want nothing to do with you or your family, minus your cousin. Besides, aren't you promised to that Lestrange git who graduated a few years ago?"

Lily was still breathing funnily, but even furrowed her brows, disgusted by the lengths pure-blood families would go to keep their bloodlines pure. Bellatrix just continued to eye James with interest, batting her eyes slightly at him, "But James, my parents would still like for it to be you, and you know it. Plus, you're much better to look at than Lestrange."

James was horrified, and he grabbed Bella's arm, yanking on it roughly. He felt like a piece of meat, "You're sick, Bellatrix. I have no idea what you are trying to pull, but because of your actions tonight, Dumbledore is not going to consider this lightly. Now, lower your wand, and we will walk calmly up to the Headmaster's Office to sort this out."

Bella sneered, "You wish, Potter. I'm having the most fun of my lifetime."

He looked extremely disgusted. "You call this fun?"

She sent a curse flying at him, which he was able to easily deflect with a shield charm. He noticed her enervate Malfoy, who sluggishly began to get up, but James was able to petrify her while her back was turned.

"Welcome, Potter. You ready to be killed?"

James shot another spell at Malfoy, but he dodged it. Malfoy laughed and suddenly made a slashing movement with his wand, muttered under his breath, and sent purple flames at James. Lily watched James' eyes widen in disbelief as he physically dodged the curse by running into the wall.

He turned and looked back over at Malfoy, still looking rather stunned. "That's incredibly dark magic, Malfoy. What the hell do you think you are playing at?"

Lily was alarmed at how horrified James looked. She had no idea what curse he had fired, but it must be awful for James to look that worried. After all, he had no problem with running into the dark, alone and unprotected, to save Lily. James was one of the bravest people Lily had ever met; there was no doubt about that. To see him get scared was a bit unnerving.

Malfoy just snickered. "Can't handle it, Potter? How about your girlfriend then?"

James' eyes widened; Lily was incredibly weak and would most likely die if she experienced the spell. "No."

Smirking, Malfoy waved his wand and nonverbally shot out a stream of dark green light at the redhead. Without thinking, James jumped in front of her and took the curse instead, immediately falling to the ground, as still as a stone. Horrified, Lily writhed around, unable to make an intelligible sounds. Knowing that she had to act quickly to save herself and James, she grabbed James' discarded wand which had fallen at her feet and pointed it at Malfoy. However, her hand shook so badly that the light hit the wall instead.

Malfoy bent down, whispering in her ear. "Well, look what we have here? Little Miss Mudblood, all alone."

Shaking, Lily desperately tried to push him away; his breath smelled rotten, and he was scaring her terribly. But with a snarl, he grabbed her arm and shoved her through the corridor.

Petrified, Lily stuttered, "Where—where are you taking me?"

"To the dungeons."

Lily bit his arm, trying not to taste the blood and sprinting away from him, sitting down next to James. "James! James, can you hear me?"

As she rolled him over, she noticed he was struggling to breathe a bit, but he flimsily got up. Angry, Malfoy grabbed her shirt, clenching his hands around her throat and shoving her up against the wall.

Lily cried out as her robe, which contained her wand, slipped off of her shoulders, leaving her feeling exposed, and unprotected. Desperately trying to reach her pocket, she stretched her arm, trying to grab her wand, but Malfoy just strengthened his hold on her, hissing, "How dare you bite me, you filthy Mudblood?"

He kneed her stomach, causing her to cough up blood and holding her against the wall as she screamed, trying to escape.

When James finally managed to open his eyes, he was horrified at the sight of Malfoy pinning Lily to the wall. Knowing that she'd be severely injured if he didn't help, James quickly petrified Malfoy, falling to the floor in an unconscious heap afterwards.

Lily grabbed her throat, struggling to breathe. Finding strength somewhere deep inside of herself, she pulled herself up and staggered along the wall heading straight to Dumbledore's office, which was a bit further away than she had thought, or maybe it felt that way because she was so weak and tired. Eventually, she reached the gargoyles, muttering the password.

She knew she was extremely pale because the light-headed feeling clouding her head was beginning to get worse. She had to be close to fainting. "Lemon Drops."

Lily made her way as quickly as possible up the stairs. She banged on Dumbledore's door, calling for him, saying it was an emergency. She was leaning against the wall by the door, breathing erratically, when Dumbledore opened. His eyes immediately widened, and he appeared deeply concerned when he saw her in such a state. "What is it, Lily? What's wrong?"

Lily closed her eyes briefly and tried to calm down. She wasn't even sure she could make a complete sentence. "Cruciatus curse. Some dark flames."

Dumbledore's eyes hardened at every word she was able to say. He immediately began to move, pulling her along carefully. "Where?"

Lily struggled to keep up. "Astronomy tower."

"Fawkes!"

The majestic bird landed on Dumbledore's shoulder as they walked quickly to the now dismal looking scene. Dumbledore immediately crouched down to survey James while the redhead leaned against the closest wall for support. Dumbledore's eyes widened a bit with deep concern. "Fawkes, please take these two to the Hospital Wing immediately."

The bird gave a trill and landed on her chest before they disappeared, flying through the narrow hallways until he dropped them off in the Hospital Wing.

Lily had felt no sensation, no feeling, and all she wanted was to lie down; she was feeling quite a bit dizzy and woozy too. She didn't even have time to admire the beautiful bird before he disappeared once again.

She noticed Madam Pomfrey waving her wand wildly over James, who was lying unconscious in one of the beds, trying to figure out what was wrong. Lily's vision was swimming, and she felt weak on her feet. Noticing her struggles, Madam Pomfrey said, "Lie down! Try and stay conscious until I have a look at you, dear."

The nurse immediately ran to the back of the hospital wing up to a tall, dark cabinet Lily had never seen her use before. She pulled out what looked to be about fifteen vials of potion and wheeled them over to James. She began administering them all immediately. "Unbelievable. Who would dare use such a horrible curse?"

Lily was surprised at the amount of potions being used to help James; it didn't seem like he was hurt that badly, at least not fatally, but maybe Lily just misjudged the extent of his injury. After a few minutes, Madam Pomfrey brought two potions over to her. "Here you go, dear. The first will give you dreamless sleep, and the second is to calm your nerves. You need rest, peace, and quiet above all else."

Lily nodded and took the first potion meticulously. "Is James going to be okay?"

Madam Pomfrey sighed. "He's a fighter, that one. He'll be unconscious for a few days and will have to take about twenty potions a day for about a week, but he'll come out of it okay, I'm sure."

It was a matter of seconds before Lily closed her eyes and was able to drift away from all the commotion from the evening.


	8. Chapter 8

Lily opened her eyes, shifting on her cot and looking oddly at the stained glass in front of her. That's when everything came back to her. The Cruciatus curse. Malfoy. Bellatrix. James. The hospital wing. Remembering all these thoughts, she sat up abruptly, and Professor Dumbledore noticed as he was sitting nearby. "Ah, Lily. You're awake."

Lily looked over and saw him sitting next to James, who was still unconscious.

"Good morning, Sir." She greeted him.

"How are you feeling?"

"Alright, I suppose. Much better than last night." She replied, trying to manage a wry smile.

Dumbledore nodded. "I'm glad you feel better. I was hoping you could tell me exactly what occurred last night. Both Miss Black and Mr. Malfoy were rather uncooperative, although between you and me, they gave me a rough idea within their minds. Both of them will be spending the rest of the year in detentions each week. Miss Black has also been removed from prefect duty and has been replaced by Ms. Delmont. Unfortunately, I have not been given permission to expel them by the school board, so a suspension of a few days will have to suffice."

"I think that's fine, though I think they really deserve expulsions, Professor." Lily told him the story, about how she had been ambushed by the two of them, how James had come out of nowhere and stopped it, how Malfoy was planning on dragging her to the dungeons, and how James had taken the curse instead of her. When she mentioned how Malfoy was planning to take her to the dungeons, Dumbledore furrowed his brows. So Lily paused for a moment, wondering whether she had hit a sore point as she watched his face sour, clouded by venom. 

"Are you alright, sir?"

He nodded. "I'm fine. I just remembered something from the past; you seem to have sparked my memory."

When Dumbledore saw her glance sorrowfully over at James, he spoke, "James will be alright, Miss Evans. He did it because he knew you would probably not have been able to handle it after being weakened by the Cruciatus curse. He is a Gryffindor through and through."

Lily nodded quietly to herself, still a bit stunned that he had risked his life for her. She had never thought him to be that chivalrous, that brave, or that sweet. It was a bit astonishing to see him lying there, in a terrible condition, just for her. If anything, she felt even worse about herself now for misunderstanding him than she did before. She felt horrible; did she really always focus on his faults and never focus on the good stuff? Not to mention he had apologized for the shouting match and was willing to try the friendship out.

Madam Pomfrey interrupted her thoughts. "Well, Miss Evans, I think you are going to be just fine. I have one more potion for you, and then, you can be on your way. There's about a hour left until lunch."

Lily gulped down the potion, letting the soothing liquid slowly trickle down her throat. It was the same potion that she had been given the night before. Dumbledore threw her a smile. "I believe that Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, and Mr. Pettigrew will wonder where James is. I would really appreciate it if you could let them know."

"Of course, Sir."

Lily made her way to the Heads' Dorm where she showered and changed into a red jumper that Dorcas had bought her from Cashmere. When she finally made her way into the Great Hall, people were chattering incessantly. Lily hadn't walked two feet into the room before she found Sirius standing in front of her, looking concerned. "Where is he? Did something else happen? Why were you both missing?"

Lily sighed, knowing that many more questions would surely be directed to her in the next few minutes. "He's in the hospital wing."

Sirius' eyes narrowed. "What did you do to him?"

Lily held up her hands, a bitter smile on her face. "It wasn't me. I ran into some trouble last night, and he helped."

Black was eyeing her carefully, an eyebrow raised. "Who did it?"

Lily glanced over at the Slytherin table quickly, noticing two particularly cruel smiles. She was also wary of Sirius' widely-known temper. "I don't think I should tell you…at least not here."

Sirius' eyes flared. "It was my cousin, wasn't it? And one of her cronies?"

Lily merely nodded, unsure of how to handle Sirius' anger. She almost sighed with relief when Remus walked up to them both. "What's going on, Sirius?"

Sirius' eyes were still blazing. "Come on, Moony. Grab Wormtail. We have to leave. That's it. Those Slytherins are _so_ going to get it."

Lily watched the three boys leave before immediately sitting down next to Dorcas and Alice, who grabbed her shoulders and pummeled her with questions. "Are you alright? Black looked rather angry. Is this about Potter again?"

Lily sighed and grabbed some food off of the table. "Yeah, he's in the hospital wing."

Aishu's eyes widened. "Slytherins?"

Lily nodded, hanging her head. "Can't you tell? They're all gloating over there."

She watched her friend Dorcas glance over at the Slytherin table where most were sitting and looking a bit happier than usual, and she groaned. "Ugh… What a mess. We have them in Potions this afternoon. They are going to be so annoying."

Lily couldn't agree more, but somehow she managed to attend all her classes and get through life.

Two days after the hallway disaster, James had yet to wake up. Lily, out of curiosity and concern, found herself in the library researching the Divalsi curse, which James had been hit with. She had been horrified to learn about it. The curse, upon contact, did four horrible things: crushed the ribcage, slowed the heartbeat, began condensing the brain, and began burning the kidneys. Not only that, but no charm could prevent it.

She now understood why Dumbledore had acted as quickly as he did and why James must have known that with her weakened body, the curse might have killed her if he had allowed her to take it. Not that James would let her take it if she was in full health—James was the epitome of a brave Gryffindor.

She had gone to see him a few times, not only because of guilt, but also to make sure he was doing okay. In fact, that was where she was heading now. When she rounded the corner, she was surprised to see him finally awake and talking quietly with Madam Pomfrey, a half-smile, half-frown etched on his face. Lily gently knocked on the door to announce her presence.

Madam Pomfrey patted his arm and walked off into her office, a small smile playing at her lips, for the makeup between James and Lily was common knowledge. Lily approached James awkwardly and sat on the empty bed across from him. "So…you're awake. How are you feeling?"

James sighed and immediately put a hand to his chest when the effort from that simple act seemed to hurt him. "I'm alright. I've just got a bit of chest pain."

He seemed a little distant with her, but she had expected that. She had no idea what to really say so she kind of blurted out her next thought. "You shouldn't have taken the spell for me."

James' head rolled across his pillow towards her, and she saw him smile as he focused on her. "If you're every bit the girl I know you are, you've already researched the curse that was used and know what could've happened to you if you had taken the curse." He looked away from her then, running his fingers along the warm glass of the nearby window. "Besides, even if you weren't in a weakened state at the time, I probably still would have done it. I wouldn't want you to have to go through this."

Lily was surprised and slightly touched by his words. They were both silent for a bit, but at least, it didn't feel as awkward as before. 

James broke the silence. "And I'm sorry about what you heard from Bella too. She can be a bit of a, if you know what a mean, pain in the butt."

Lily laughed slightly and nodded, but her curiosity got the best of her, so she had to ask, "Was what she saying really true?"

James continued to look away from her. "Unfortunately, yes."

"Her family really did that?"

James nodded and randomly met her eyes again, his expression indicating a need to explain something that she probably didn't understand. "It was different when we were younger, before she got caught up with all those pure-blood ideals from her family. At charity dinners and the like, all of the pure-blood children, all of us included, were placed in a room together while our parents were forced to do this or that, and believe it or not, we all got along. It wasn't until it was almost time for us all to go to Hogwarts that you could begin to see the differentiation between, well, people like my family and people like the Blacks. It's amazing that I can actually remember Bellatrix, Narcissa, Sirius, and I all laughing together, and then be forced to look at who they've become now."

Lily offered him a small smile, gently taking his hand after seeing the frown that started coming over his face and squeezing it unconsciously. James, who was rather surprised and touched by the gesture, felt a blush creeping up his cheeks. When she didn't let go after a few minutes, looking beyond the horizon through the glass window, he nervously ran a hand through his hair. "Uhh…Lily, what are you doing?"

Jumping up suddenly, she let go of his hand, blushing furiously. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was just… thinking."

James was about to comment, when someone else knocked on the door. They both turned, and she saw it was the dirty blonde-haired girl that James seemed to spend most of his time with. Lily instantly got up, feeling like a third wheel. "I've got to get going anyway. See you later, James. You can tell me more later if you want."

She heard him call out goodbye to her as she left. Turning back slightly, she was annoyed when he greeted the Ravenclaw happily and leaned forward to pull her into an embrace. Who was she anyway? And why did seeing him so happy with her bother her so much? Why did she secretly hope she wasn't an old girlfriend, or perhaps, a new girlfriend? A frown etching across her face, Lily dropped all of her things when she saw James get up and kiss the girl on her cheek, throwing her a warm smile.

Shaking slightly, Lily realized the inevitable. She was James' girlfriend. This news, under normal circumstances, would have probably made her extremely happy since it meant that he would finally leave her alone. But Lily had been worried that this girl was his soul partner for quite awhile now, and Lily had been hoping that James would still ask her out. Yes, that sounds selfish, but Lily was starting to question James' attachment to her.

In fact, she was rather curious to see if James really had eyes for no-one but her. Because she wanted a loyal boyfriend, not some random cheater who had gone around with hundreds of girls before her. Why did she want him to? Lily had no idea, but she _just_ wanted him to.

Sure, James was a pain in the butt and extremely annoying at times, but now that they were in seventh year and living right next to each other, she started noticing a lot of his good habits and couldn't help but wonder why she had ever denied him. But Lily was way too shy to openly admit this, especially when she didn't even know for sure if she liked him or not.

But now was just too much. Having a secret girlfriend just lit the fuse for the inevitable explosion that Lily had been slowly building up. He had pretty much lied to her, claiming that he was in love with no-one but her…and it annoyed her so much because he wasn't being loyal or honest. And Lily _hated_ those weren't loyal.

So the instant she saw the guy that had been mooning over her for the past three years and skirting her and asking her out and saving her life on multiple occasions who seemed to be madly in love with her just randomly kiss another girl who _happened_ to be his secret girlfriend, all her remaining resolve melted. She ran into the hospital wing, a blazing look in her eyes as the dirty-blonde haired girl gave her a cheesy smile, pausing to whisper, "I think he _likes_ you," in her ear while swinging out of the room and waving goodbye to James.

Lily's face was as red as a tomato, and she started yelling, "Who the hell do you think you are, Potter?!"

He looked extremely alarmed. "What's wrong, Evans?"

Tears streaming down her cheeks, Lily said, "You dare talk to me like that?! You dare address me like that?!" 

James looked very frazzled. "Calm down, Evans. What's this all ab—"

Lily ran next to his cot. "You know what this is about, Potter, don't act like you don't know anything. You complete arse!"

He had an angry look in his eyes. "Jeez, Evans, I've been really kind to you, and I forgave you for acting horribly to me; why are ratting—"

"Shut up, Potter! Just shut the hell up!"

He rose up off of his cot. "You know what, Evans, I'm done with this. I'm done with you. I've been willing to give you a second chance, and frankly, I'm tired of you yelling at me for no apparent—"

She grabbed a bag of candies menacingly. "Shut your face, Potter! How dare you say there's no apparent reason!? How dare you act like an innocent little boy?! You're everything but that, you, you!"

Potter started laughing seeing her flaming red face. "God, Evans. It looks like your face caught on fire and someone tried to put it out with a fork."

She was shocked. "Oh, using _internet_ insults against me, are we, you arse?"

He put on a fake frown and said in a slightly high-pitched voice. "Oh Evans, using bad words are we?"

She spat, "Using bad words will never even come _close_ to what you did."

He smirked. "At least I'm the most handsome guy in our year."

She clenched her teeth. "Jeez, Potter, will you ever get over yourself? You act like your arrogance is a virtue!"

He snorted, rummaging through his brain for another insult. "Who picked out your clothes? A blind guy who hates you?"

She flushed, looking at her shirt. "There's nothing wrong with my clothes! But that's beside the point. You're an idiot, you stupid, you jerk, you prat, you git, you b—"

With every insulting word she threw at him, she picked up one of his gifts and sent it flying at his head with menace, causing him to jump in alarm and pin her against the wall so as to stop her from throwing things.

He leaned in close to her face. "Why does it aggravate me that even after you're insulting me so badly, you still look so damn hot?!"

Lily screamed, "Arrrrggghhhh!" She elbowed him in the stomach, grabbing a bunch of pillows and chucking them at him, until finally she said in a low, dangerous voice, "Potter, I'd rather stuff a puppy in a wood chipper than argue with you anymore." With a frustrated sigh, she threw his gift from the dirty blonde girl onto the floor, storming out of the hospital wing.

Meanwhile, he was gaping, frowning slightly at the smashed figurine that lay on the floor in a million pieces.

Lily, who was tearing rapidly through the long corridors of Hogwarts, felt tears running down her cheeks, and she cursed herself mentally for acting so stupid about the whole situation. So what if he had a secret girlfriend? So what if he lied to her? So what if he was disloyal? So what if he was an outright jerk? Should she really have gone and _thrown_ things at him? Should she seriously have ranted a bunch of stupid insults from the i_nternet_ at him? Shaking her head, Lily burst through the doors of her room, collapsing on her bed and crying. She grabbed a pillow and pounded it about a hundred times, imagining that it was James. After a couple of hours of sitting on her bed and sobbed, Lily changed into her nightclothes and crept underneath the covers of her warm bed, nodding off into a deep sleep.

When Lily woke up the next morning, tears started creeping into her eyes, but she wiped them all away and got ready for the day quickly, running into the living room to see if she could apologize to James for throwing the figurine onto the floor. Sure, he had been really obnoxiously lying, and he acted like a jerk, but even she admitted that she really shouldn't have broken that gift from the blonde-girl. But when she scurried down the stairs to the common room, he wasn't there. She frowned, thinking that he had already gone to breakfast because of his anger towards her.

She quickly pulled on a shirt and jeans, dashing out of the room and through the corridors until finally she reached the Great Hall, where all of her fellow students were sitting. But just as she was about to sit next to her best friends Dorcas and Aishu, she saw a horrifying sight. James and that Ravenclaw were in an embrace, and he patted her back reassuringly, holding her hand gently.

Lily's eyes widened, and before she knew it, tears started rushing to her eyes again as she sprinted out of the Great Hall and back into her dorm room, collapsing onto her bed and staying there for quite a while. After a couple of hours, her best friend Aishu knocked at her door, opening it up and sitting at the edge of her bed; she looked really concerned. "Are you alright, Lily?"

Sniffling, she nodded. "Yeah, it's just that Potter and I have had a really rocky week. It's—it's nothing."

Aishu looked deep in thought, suddenly looking up at Lily and saying in a hushed voice, "I think you might be falling for him."

Lily laughed nervously, waving her comment away. "No way, Aishu. Just no way."

Aishu continued to study her carefully. "No I'm serious Lily, all of your actions these past few weeks are sort of tilting it to that…I seriously think you're falling for him."

Lily angrily remarked, "What do you want me to say? That I'm falling hard and fast for him? That I'm madly in love with him?"

Aishu could tell that Lily was being sarcastic, but when she looked into Lily's eyes, she noticed a certain nervousness, a certain uncertainty floating around about, and they were watery, tears lining the edges.

She took a deep breath. "Well I'm not so sure, Lily. I'm really not, and I don't think you are either."

Lily sighed and fell onto her bed. "So much has happened; it feels like such a heavy burden."

Aishu simply said, "Then tell me about it."

Lily clambered off of her bed and started pacing. "I don't even know where to start; let's see…Well back in fourth year is when he started asking me out several times each day and giving me flowers once a week. It really was annoying, and he was an arrogant toe-rat, a jerk, and a player all before then."

Aishu felt a smile playing at her lips. "That's right…James Potter is _so_ an arrogant toe-rat."

"And he was always so mean to Sev, and I felt so bad, and I _always_ had to interfere, and so many Gryffindor girls thought I was positively evil for not realizing how supposedly good he was."

Aishu quietly said, "But you can see that he is good, now, can't you?"

Lily bit her lip, "I wouldn't say good; I'd say better than normal though. Ever since the start of this year, he started being extremely kind, and not that arrogant, and not that self-centered, and sweet, and considerate, and forgiving, and smart, and handsome—"

Aishu snorted. "_Uh huh_…how can anyone start being handsome?"

Lily blushed furiously. "That's not what I meant to say! He started to be so thoughtful and caring. I mean what guy gets yelled at by a professor just to help a first year? He's so helpful, and good at Quidditch, and he's nice. And he's really funny and he seems to be much more mysterious and a lot less arrogant that I always thought him to be. Sure, he's condescending at times, and self-righteous, but he's toned it down so much! I mean, he's decreased his head like ten times, and now I'm pretty sure he didn't just like me for a stupid bet with Black…"

Aishu widened her eyes. "You actually thought that! Lily, I'm sure everyone knew how _in love_ he was ever since fourth year! Of course he didn't do it for a stupid bet. What in the _world_ makes you think that?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. He's really popular. Why would he like a goody-goody like me who's really smart and isn't the prettiest girl in our year."

Aishu reassured her. "Lily, you're pretty, and lots of guys want to date you. But seriously, I mean, James puts flowers on your bed _every single morning_ for god sakes girl, what more do you want?"

Lily bitterly replied, "It doesn't even matter anymore because he's crushing on that Ravenclaw."

Aishu looked at her with pity, "Oh I'm sure it's just a—wait! You never told me what happened next."

Lily sighed. "It's simple. He's been having a secret girlfriend, for how long, I don't know. But he has…I saw him kissing her yesterday."

Aishu cringed. "Lily, in your case, everything is just so muddled up that nothing points you in any clear direction. All I've got to say for advice…is to just let things go the way they're supposed to. Don't interfere in James and that Ravenclaw's relationship, and just continue your life as normal. It will all smooth over eventually. But Lily, I'm serious, do you like James?"

Lily put her head in her hands. "Ugh! I hope not!"

Aishu looked skeptical. "You _hope_ not?"

Lily threw her hands up into the air. "I don't, okay! I don't! I'm just going to take your advice."

Aishu managed a small smile. "Okay, Lily, that sounds good. I never got a chance to tell you what I've been meaning to."

Lily clambered off of her bed, putting her face in her hands. "You came here to tell me something?!"

Aishu rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly… I came to cheer you up!"

Lily smiled. "Oh, so what is it?"

Aishu took a deep breath. "I'm leaving Hogwarts next semester."

Lily jumped up wildly. "You what?"

She calmly repeated, "I'm leaving next semester."

Lily spluttered, "But, but why?"

Aishu gave her a sad smile. "Because I'm going to try modeling. I've been accepted as a participant in the Miss India pageant, and I'm also trying out for Miss World."

Lily exclaimed, "What?! Wow, Aishu. I really don't want you to leave, but congratulations!"

"Thanks. Lily, I've really got to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Lily nodded, and after a few hours, she walked into the Great Hall for lunch, where the dirty-blonde Ravenclaw was leaning against a wall, looking angrily at James, who was talking cheerfully to a Hufflepuff.

The redhead walked up to her. "So I guess you've been left by him too."

The girl looked confused. "Huh?"

Lily looked at her like she was a maniac; did she not understand what she was saying? "Ditched. By James."

The girl widened her eyes, laughing nervously a bit. "Oh no, James was never my boyfriend, Lily."

She snapped, "Stop lying! I saw you kissing him yesterday."

The girl gave her a sly smile. "On the cheek."

Lily threw her hands up. "And he looked so happy to see you, and he kissed you back."

She laughed. "Oh no I assure you, Lily, I am _not_ his girlfriend," Wrinkling her nose, she continued, "In fact, I'd be rather _repulsed_ if I was."

Lily looked horrified. "Why? James is a perfectly fine guy!"

The dirty blonde nudged her with a smile playing at her lips. "Why? Do _you_ like James?"

Lily started blushing horrendously. "No! Of course not!"

The girl slyly said, "I thought you said he was 'a perfectly fine guy.'"

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Too much self-righteousness and arrogance, don't you think?"

The girl burst into laughter, and Lily couldn't help but smile; she found herself really liking this girl even though she didn't know who she was.

The blonde nodded. "Yeah. Sometimes James can be really arrogant. But he's kind."

Lily's smile melted off of her face. "So you say he's not your boyfriend, or at least, he _wasn't_ your boyfriend." She wanted to believe the Ravenclaw, but she had seen her kissing him yesterday, so the evidence pointed against it. Then again, it _had_ been on the cheek. But James was an only child, so she couldn't be his sister or something like that.

The Ravenclaw sighed. "No Lily, he's _not;_ Iswear on every blonde hair on my head." Lily cast her an odd look, so she threw her hands up. "What?! I don't want all my hairs to be grey! Though knowing how much drama there is at this school, I'll probably be covered in them by the time I leave!"

Lily started giggling. "Okay, okay. I believe you. Are you family?"

The girl looked around cautiously, lowering her voice to a whisper, "I'm James' cousin, Emma. My parents passed away in a car crash, so I live with him and his family."

Looking genuinely unhappy for her, Lily replied, "Oh, I'm sorry. Why is this such a secret?"

She shyly said, "I can't tell you everything right now, Lily. It's very personal, but I'm sure you'll find out one day when you're married to James."

Lily waved her off. "Oh trust me, I'll _never_ marry him."

Emma smiled a bit as she walked away, thinking to herself. _Oh she is __so__ going to marry James…"_

A bit frantic to apologize to James for what she had done, after breakfast was over, Lily scurried into the hospital wing.

Upon seeing her, James looked up coldly, saying, "What, Evans? Did you come to throw another ten things at me?"

Lily swallowed, biting her lip and walking next to his cot. "No, I came to apologize. James, I'm really sorry. I really shouldn't have been that horrible to you. I called you a lot of horrible insults, and—"

She started crying, and James looked worried. "Are you alright?"

Lily smiled; he was being sweet even when she just insulted him horribly. "Yes, it's just that I insulted you terribly, and you didn't even deserve it. I'm really sorry about the gift. Here—" she fished a figurine out of her satchel, saying, "I bought you another one from the same store that your friend got it from. James, the whole reason that I started yelling at you is because I thought that Emma was your girlfriend."

James widened his eyes. "What?"

Lily nodded, "Yeah, I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?"

James nodded, awkwardly saying, "I guess I should have made it more clear that Emma was just a—wait, did she tell you?"

The redhead nodded. "I know she's your cousin."

He looked genuinely surprised. "Wow, Lauren usually keeps that information to herself, and almost nobody knows about it. She must really trust you for whatever reason. But I'm sorry about not making it clear she wasn't my girlfriend, Lily. But hey—why do you even care so much about her being my girlfriend?"

She stuttered, "Well I just thought you were being dishonest to me about your interests so…"

He replied, "You know I'd never lie to you unless it was to protect you or someone else."

She flashed him a smile, running out of the Hospital Wing and back into her room. Things were resolved, and the redhead was happy once more. But there still loomed the issue of liking James, looming above her head like a grey cloud full of rain. Lily just didn't know when the storm would begin.


	9. Chapter 9

It had been another three days. Three, long, boring days. James was still stuck in the hospital, and he was getting annoyed with being there. "Please, Madam Pomfrey, I'm really getting bored. Can I please just bust out of here? I can come down here every morning and take these twenty potions if you want."

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips. "James Potter, you will do nothing of the sort! You are going to stay here for at least one more day. Your ribs still aren't fully healed yet. I do not want you traipsing around the castle doing Merlin knows what with your friends or playing a rough game of Quidditch and getting yourself stuck back in here again. If you decide to pull one of your little stunts and sneak off, I will contact Professor Dumbledore, and I know he will not be happy with that."

James groaned, but winced and placed a hand on his chest. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to stay after all. He conceded, "Fine, but one more day. That's it. I can't take any more torture than that."

Madam Pomfrey just bristled at him as she walked away. He would do what she and what Dumbledore told him to do. It was all for the best, after all.

Sirius walked in just then. "Hey Prongs. So Madam Pomfrey's not allowing you to bust out, huh?"

James shook his head. "At least one more day, apparently. Where are the rest of the guys?"

"Wormtail is always running off, as you know. Moony is studying like a good little prefect."

James sighed. "You know studying really isn't all that bad…"

Shocked, Sirius said, "You have been spending way too much time with Evans!"

James laughed. "That I have. Are you going to go to Professor McGonagall's extra lessons with me after I bust out of here?"

Sirius shrugged. "Probably. Besides, it gives me extra time to be with Minnie, my favorite Professor."

James snorted. "I thought you had a crush on the Astronomy Professor, even though you don't take the course?"

"Well, she is rather pretty, isn't she?"

"I wouldn't know. I'm partial to redheads."

Sirius just grinned at him. "Lily come around yet?"

James shook his head, frowning and looking away. "I know I haven't told you everything. Just know we have a few things to sort out still, you know, from before."

Sirius nodded, not really caring that James wasn't telling him everything. James always filled him in when he was ready. Sirius never needed to force him. "It's okay. Just let me know when you're ready."

"So what's going to be the next prank?"

Sirius' eyes lit up. "Well, with you gone, we had to postpone the few we had been discussing. We wanted to do the one with the Slytherins all howling like werewolves for Halloween. Or we could do the one where we suddenly vanish all of the Slytherins' undergarments while we are in one of the classes, once you're back of course."

James snickered. "That will be really funny."

"What will?"

Both Sirius and James turned to see Lily standing in the doorway, carrying some books. Sirius didn't miss a beat. "Uhh, the Gryffindor Quidditch game if James can't play."

Lily looked at them both like they were crazy. "You do know that James is alright, and the Quidditch game is about a month away, right?"

James jutted in, "Sirius is just worried about my ribs and all."

Lily looked at them suspiciously but couldn't find any fault in what they were saying. "Right. Well, James, I brought you some of your school books and that Transfiguration book you've been reading. Professor McGonagall told me to make sure you weren't slacking off while you were sitting in here doing nothing."

"Minnie. Always a mood killer." Sirius groaned.

"Stop it, Padfoot. One of these days, she is going to get you back for continuously calling her Minnie." 

Sirius just threw his arrogant grin back at James. "You know she gets a kick out of it. Makes her feel younger."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Honestly, you two. Why do you give her such a hard time?"

"Because it's the Marauders' duty, Lily."

Lily was about to reply when Professor Dumbledore waltzed in, looking rather somber. "Excuse me, Miss Evans, but may I speak privately with both Mr. Black and Mr. Potter?"

Lily looked startled at being pushed away, but she knew Dumbledore would never ask if it  
wasn't important. "Of course, Sir. I was just dropping off some stuff. I can leave."

Both boys were looking curiously at Dumbledore. However, he maintained his silence until Lily left and closed the door behind her.

Lily was walking away, but glanced back at the hospital wing out of curiosity. What she saw stopped her heart. Whatever Dumbledore was speaking about caused James to pale considerably and look absolutely stunned. She could see tears start to fall from his eyes, seemingly acting on their own accord. Although Sirius' back was to her, she saw him stumble and lean against the empty hospital bed behind him, equally shocked. She furrowed her brows. What could possibly have made the three of them so sad?

Lily found her way to the Great Hall. Other students were mulling around, but she saw Remus acting rather frantically. He approached her quickly. "Where are Sirius and James?"

"They're both in the hospital wing."

Remus moved to go find them, but Lily stopped him. "Remus, Dumbledore was in there with them and, well, whatever he was saying was not good news."

"Thanks, Lily. I have to go though."

Lily watched him leave before heading over to Dorcas. "Hey, you want to go study in the Gryffindor common room with me?"

"Nah. Maybe later. It's Saturday, and it's bound to be packed right now. We can go back there in a little while. Since dinner cleared up after you left, it's like a regular study hall again."

She and Dorcas had finished up with Astronomy, Transfiguration, and Arithmancy, before they started heading to the Gryffindor common room to do some other work. Once they got close enough, they noticed the portrait swinging open with loads of students leaving, complaining about the noise. Curious, both Dorcas and Lily entered, but they didn't have to look very far for the reason.

"EMMA! Come down here this instant! You are being absolutely insane for staying up there all day! You have to EAT! EMMA! She doesn't understand. Don't tell me I don't know how she feels. EMMA!"

Remus was gently trying to soothe Sirius, who looked incredibly pale and was shouting at the top of his lungs up the stairwell to the girls' dormitories. Lily cautiously approached the two of them. "Sirius, what's going on? Why are you shouting?"

Sirius turned at the sound of her voice, almost in relief. "LILY! You can help! Of course, you can help. Please coax Emma to come down here. She's locked herself in her room and hasn't eaten all day."

Another girl approached them and eyed Lily disdainfully. "Just so you know, Lily, Emma has locked the sixth year dorm with some kind of ward. None of us have been able to go into our dorm all day. We figured she would get over whatever it is, but she hasn't yet."

When the girl rolled her eyes, Sirius' eyes darkened. "What would you know, you little prat!" Sirius turned back to Lily, pleading, "Please, Lily. She needs to come down. She shouldn't be alone right now."

Lily nodded slightly and headed up towards the girls' dormitories, which seemed to calm Sirius a bit. She finally reached the sixth year girls' dorm and knocked gently on the door, calling out, "Emma? Are you in there? It's Lily Evans."

Lily heard a distinct sniffle and a sob. "Go away."

Lily didn't know what to do. She tried all of the unlocking charms she knew, and some minor wards, but nothing worked. Then, she heard the girl's voice again. "You won't be able to get in. The ward is complicated and requires a password."

"Emma, I'm not sure what's wrong, but you can't lock everyone else out of the dormitory. If I give you another half hour or so, will you promise to unlock the dorm so the other girls can get back in? Otherwise, I will have to notify Professor McGonagall."

The girl sniffled. "Okay."

Lily nodded to herself. This was at least some progress. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

The girl gave a small cry, and Lily heard more sniffles, "No." There was a pause before Emma added, "Well, you can always tell Sirius to shut up for me."

Lily chuckled at her brazenness. "I'll do that."

Lily made her way downstairs and was surprised when Sirius jumped up and ran in front of her. "Is she coming down? Is she okay?"

Lily gently pushed him back. "Sirius, she just needs some time to herself. And she told me to tell you to shut up."

Remus chuckled behind them. Sirius just rolled his eyes. "That's it. I can't take this anymore."

Lily had no idea what Sirius was planning on doing, but he dragged Remus out of the common room to do it. Lily then turned her attention to the other sixth year girls, who were waiting patiently. Most looked rather pissed off. Celia, from the Quidditch team, was the only one who appeared unconcerned.

"I told her she has to unlock the dorm within the hour, and she agreed. It should be alright. I'm sorry about the inconvenience, but if it were you, you would want the same courtesy, whatever the problem."

The sixth year girls just nodded, although they still looked put off by being shunned from their own dorm. Lily made her way over to Dorcas, who was sitting on the far right side of the common room. "Well, that was interesting."

Dorcas nodded. "Nothing but entertainment from Sirius Black. So Charms, Herbology, DADA, or Potions?"

"Charms."

By the time the two had finished up their Charm work and were about to start Herbology, they were startled by the portrait opening. Sirius walked in, but not with Remus, with James, who was wearing Remus' school robe over his pajamas. His face was a bit pale and held little expression, but his eyes were sad and determined. He held a hand over his chest as he walked in behind Sirius slowly. Lily knew the walk from the hospital wing must have caused him some trouble. Everyone in the common room had turned to look at him, as they had not seen him in the last five days. He didn't even notice the attention. "She upstairs?"

Sirius nodded. James walked slowly over to the girls' stairwell and began moving his wand in intricate movements, muttering an incantation. His wand emitted gentle sparks as he wove it in the intricate pattern. When he was done, he was able to step onto the girls' stairwell without it turning into a slide. Lily was not the only one who was surprised he knew how to remove the ward, and she was about to stop him but somehow felt she shouldn't. Sirius made a move to follow, but James waved his wand sharply while muttering another incantation and a sound of a door locking rumbled throughout the common room. Sirius stopped at the bottom of the stairs, scowling, and kicked an invisible door. James ignored him and slowly kept climbing up the stairs. Lily watched Sirius sit back on the couch in a huff with his arms crossed over his chest.

About thirty minutes later, James came slowly down the stairs. He waved his wand to get rid of the locked door and then began the intricate pattern of wand work to restore the ward on the girls' stairwell. Sirius had jumped up and waited for him to finish before asking, "Well?"

James just sighed and started walking toward the portrait hole. "Let's go, Sirius. We have to make a stop at the kitchens."

Sirius looked horrified at his suggestion. "James, we have to get you back to the infirmary. If Madam Pomfrey finds Remus in your place, she is going to be livid."

James just kept walking, determined. "She hasn't eaten all day. We are going to the kitchens."

Lily watched them leave with Sirius trying to persuade a rather stoic James not to go to the kitchens. Lily and Dorcas continued to finish up Transfiguration. However, after a few more minutes, the blonde pushed her school stuff away from her and groaned. "I can't do this anymore, Lily. We should just finish this bit up tomorrow. Will you help me take some of my stuff upstairs?"

Lily nodded and helped her with some of her books. They walked up the girls' stairwell, and as Lily passed the sixth year girls' dorm, she was surprised to see the door ajar. James must have been able to get in. Lily could see the now familiar dirty blonde-haired girl sitting with her hair in front of her face on her bed, fiddling with a piece of paper. The girl appeared sad, but she was no longer crying. She also noticed a platter of assorted foods and some pumpkin juice at the foot of her bed. Lily smiled to herself. James was too sweet to his cousin. With a small nod to Emma, Lily dropped off Dor's books, collected all her own things from the common room, and headed to the Heads' Dorm. She would have to find out more about the issue the next day.


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning, Lily didn't have to wait very long to find out exactly what had happened the day before. As soon as she walked into the Great Hall, she noticed that everyone was talking in hushed whispers and fawning over The Daily Prophet. Curious, she sat down in front of Aishu, who didn't say one word, but instead shoved the paper in front of her. Lily gasped at the main story.

_POTTER TRAGEDY_

Yesterday in the early morning hours, Mr. Harry Ryan Potter and Mrs. Judith Potter were taken off of life support at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. However, the doctor in charge states that he at no time gave any of his assistants permission to remove the two patients from life support, while the assistants state that they never removed the two from life support, and it must have been an outside visitor. The Ministry is being tight-lipped about the exact person who supposedly 'murdered' Mr. and Mrs. Potter, but it can be inferred that it had something to do with the now well-known menace, You-Know-Who. The Dark Mark had been fired off just before re-enforcements had arrived. By the time the help made their way inside the ward, both Mr. and Mrs. Potter had been killed, and any possible perpetrators had vanished. However, the doctor remarks that it would not have made much of a difference; Mr. and Mrs. Potter were scheduled to be removed from life support a couple of weeks after as they were dying from dragon pox and would have been dead for certain a month from now. The only reason the action was delayed was to provide a last chance for family and friends to visit the Potters, yet that is no longer possible. The Ministry has not provided any further information.

Mr. and Mrs. Potter leave behind their only child, 18 years old, James Harry Potter, currently Head Boy at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, who did not know of his parents' current ailment up until this point.

Services have been scheduled for tomorrow.

Lily looked over at Aishu, horrified. "No."

Dorcas merely nodded unhappily. "I knew something bad must have happened, what with the way the Marauders were acting and all, but this is just terrible."

Lily glanced around, a frown etched onto her face. "Why is everyone gossiping about this? Shouldn't they want to leave James alone? I would want the same courtesy if something like this had happened to me."

"The Marauders and that girl, Emma, have not come to breakfast yet, probably to avoid all of this commotion. The reason everyone is so on edge about it is because this Lord whatever guy has usually only attacked muggles and muggle-borns thus far. He just killed two members of a very powerful pure-blood family. Look over at the Slytherins. Even they seem to be surprised."

Lily glanced over at the Slytherins, most of whom looked rather subdued while a select few, like the Blacks and Malfoy, seemed to look as if Christmas had come early although they were playing it off by looking concerned.

In a huff, Lily shot Bellatrix a scornful look, turning to Alice, who had returned that day after a checkup for spattergroit at St. Mungo's. "What's going to happen? I still don't understand all the fuss. So this Lord guy is now murdering anyone and everyone."

"I know you're not familiar with all the pure-blood stuff, but now James is going to have to have the whole pure-blood funeral arrangements. Whenever a pure-blood of a powerful or renowned pure-blood family dies, the funerals are very elaborate and all pure-blood families are required to attend. This isn't some written rule; I just think it's how things are done."

Lily thought about what she said for a minute and then looked stunned. "Does that mean that even the Blacks, Malfoys, Lestranges, etc… all have to attend?"

Dorcas nodded solemnly. "Yup. Now you see why this is so monumental."

Lily nodded to herself quietly, slightly horrified at the thought that James' murderer's assistants would have to be there at the funeral. She began to eat breakfast but was surprised when the Great Hall diminished into silence. When she looked up to figure out the reason, she saw that the Marauders and Emma had walked into the Great Hall. James was holding Emma's hand and acted like he didn't notice that anything was wrong. He didn't stop, didn't look at anybody, led Emma over to the table, and waited until she sat down before sitting down himself. The rest of the Marauders took their seats around them. She watched as both Sirius and James placed some food on Emma's plate before helping themselves.

The Great Hall went back to their hushed whispering. Lily frowned at the way people were acting. Lily knew the group had waited until most people had left the Great Hall before coming in themselves, as breakfast was almost over. It was sad knowing that they wouldn't be able to get any privacy over the matter. She looked over at Dorcas, who asked, "Is that Emma girl part of his family?"

Lily frowned, trying to come up with a believable lie, surprised that James, who was best buddies with Dorcas, didn't tell her. "No one really knows. I mean, everyone knows James is an only child. She's just a quiet sixth year who doesn't have many friends in Gryffindor—probably because James Potter and the Marauders give her attention. I've seen her talk mostly with Ravenclaws and the Marauders. I think she must be a pure-blood, although no one has confirmed that. Her last name is Shelton, but I've never heard of a pure-blood family by that name, not to say it doesn't exist."

Dorcas was surprised. "Well, that's interesting. I wonder why she keeps to herself so much."

Lily nodded absent-mindedly. "Yeah, I don't know either. I've talked with her a few times, and she was nice. Not really sure about anything else though."

Just then, the unthinkable happened. A large group of Slytherins got up and walked over to Potter, led by Bellatrix Black. Lily was going to get up and say something to them, but Dorcas grabbed her hand and shook her head with a look that said 'don't even think about it.' Upon seeing the group come over, James and Sirius immediately stood up. He waved his wand, and when Bellatrix began to speak, no one could hear what was being said. As Bellatrix continued, Sirius began to look absolutely murderous but remained quiet. James' expression gave away nothing, but when he responded, it looked somewhat forced. Bellatrix and the rest of the clan nodded and walked away. Sirius and James waited for them all to leave before sitting down again.

Lily was horrendously confused. "What was that all about?" 

Alice sighed. "Probably information regarding the services. I told you they all would be going."

Lily sighed and felt horrible for James. She had no idea how he was putting up with all of this.

She patrolled by herself that night because she assumed that James would not be up to it, not to mention she hadn't seen him in the Heads' Dorm all day. The halls were pretty quiet anyways. She had just finished and was heading slowly back to the Heads' Dorm when she found herself in front of Professor Dumbledore. "Ahh, Ms. Evans…just who I was looking for."

"You were looking for me, Sir?"

Dumbledore sighed and began to walk with her in the direction of the Heads' Dorm. "Yes, Lily. I wanted to inform you that I will not be in the castle tomorrow or the next day due to personal family business. You will be acting alone as the Head Girl, since James will be away. If there are any problems, please report to Professor McGonagall."

Lily nodded; she had figured as much. "Okay, Sir. Thanks for letting me know."

Dumbledore shot her a small smile and then backtracked towards his office. Lily continued walking and found herself in the sixth floor corridor, contemplating the situation at hand. She tapped her wand three times on the wall and made her way to the portrait. "Are you Sirius?"

The portrait instantly moved aside, and she made her way over to the couch, where she had left a number of her books open. She had done all of her homework for the coming week, but she had found a couple of library books on useful charms that she had begun reading. Everything was quiet until she heard the portrait step aside once more, and she saw James enter with Emma. "Emma, you can just go on to my room. I'll come in to get a few things later, okay?"

She nodded and left James and Lily in the common room together. He plopped down on the couch beside Lily with a sigh. "I hope you don't mind her staying in here tonight. She just wanted to get away from all of those annoying Gryffindor girls." He frowned slightly. "They're rather mean to her, well, except for Celia. Plus, she wanted some privacy."

"I don't mind. I'm sorry about what happened. I was horrified when I found out."

James looked over at her briefly, and she could see the sadness still fresh in his hazel eyes. "Yeah. What was worse was getting their letters. When you enter work as an Auror, you write these goodbye letters that the Ministry keeps in case something happens. Those were horrible to read."

He looked so miserable that she wanted to hug him to take the pain away, but she knew that would not be appropriate, seeing as they were barely friends to begin with. "I'm sorry. Emma seems to be taking it rather hard too."

James sighed. "I know she told you that she's my cousin. Her parents were killed when she was seven, and she moved in with my family. I think it's like losing her parents all over again. I'm trying to be strong for her. She'll always be my little sister."

Lily looked slightly surprised and sad, hushing her voice. "Oh, I'm so sorry about her parents, your aunt and uncle. It must have been terrible to lose them at such a young age. But it's sweet that you think of her as a younger sister. Does anyone else know about your blood relation?"

James shook his head. "Not really. My family line is a closely regarded secret. There are now only six people including myself that know everything. I'm sure Emma, well me too, would like for you to keep the knowledge to yourself, although many people have probably guessed by now that she and I are related somehow."

"Sure, I won't say anything about it to anyone. What about Sirius? Doesn't he live with you too? I thought I heard something like that last year from one of the Blacks."

James frowned slightly, his eyes looking off into the distance as he thought over what he would say. "I won't tell you too much, although from how the Blacks behave, you can sort of understand. Sirius ran away from home the summer after fifth year. He's been living with me ever since. I'm sure we are distant cousins anyway. All of the pure-blood families are inter-related somewhere if you go back far enough."

"Well, I suppose I should get all my stuff out of here, as I imagine you will be sleeping out here. You seem like a gentleman, even though it must have been buried beneath a whole lot of arrogance."

Her tone had no malice behind it, and it almost seemed like she was playing with him. James gave her a small smile, though it didn't seem genuine. "Yeah."

Lily nodded and began to collect her stuff, when James interrupted, "Wait, I want you to have something for the next two days, while I'm gone."

She looked over at him curiously when he pulled out an old looking bit of parchment. "Uhh, what is it?"

James just rotated the parchment in his hands. "Now, don't tell anyone or turn this in or the Marauders will punch me until I'm black and blue."

Lily was still looking at him oddly, but he was waiting for her to promise before he was going to continue. Yet she didn't get what the big deal was; I mean, it was a piece of parchment for goodness sakes. "Okay, I promise."

James nodded, took out his wand, touched it to the parchment, and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The parchment immediately came alive. Lily looked at down at it in surprise. "The Marauders' Map? A Map of what?"

James opened the parchment and watched Lily's eyes widen. "Merlin! That's— that's Hogwarts! Wait, there's me!"

James smiled slightly as he pointed on the map. "And me. And anyone else you want to find."

Lily just looked back at him suspiciously. "This is how you get away with everything, isn't it?"

James shook his head. "Not really, but I suppose it helps delay the inevitable. I'm letting you borrow it so you don't find yourself in harm's way when you do patrol by yourself when I'm gone. Most of the worst Slytherins will be away, but at least the ones that remain won't be able to do anything to you if you have this. You'll be able to see them coming before they reach you."

Lily looked over at him; there was something about his tone when he said all that, and there was the fact that he was trying not to look at her. What he was saying was really sweet. She, for once, was unsure of how to act and speak around him. "Umm, thanks."

"Oh, and when you're done, just tap it once more and say 'mischief managed' to hide the Map."

She watched as he did just that, and then handed her the parchment. She took it with all of her other things. "Goodnight, James. I'll see you when you get back."

James nodded and watched her go into her own room before proceeding over to his own door and knocking gently. "Emma, can I come in?"

He heard her say okay so he made his way inside and grabbed a few of his things before heading to his bathroom to shower. He was not going to want to do so in the morning. When he made his way out of the bathroom in his pajamas, he sat down on his bed next to Emma, who was reading one of his books on wards that had been on the floor, "Could this day get any worse?"

"This is about as bad as it can get, James."

He sighed. "Why them?"

Emma looked thoughtful. "Because Voldemort could. You know, Dumbledore said this might happen. He said it this past summer. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it."

James nodded absently. "I remember, but maybe I was naive in thinking he was wrong."

"Dumbledore said Voldemort would attempt to do it just because Dumbledore was close to our family. It probably had nothing to do with who they were." She frowned, tilting her head as she mulled over another possibility. "Well, maybe not. None of the other pure-blood families have ever liked us either so it's possible they were made a target because of that too." 

James was quiet for a moment. He remembered his last words with Bella and how he refused her advances vehemently the night he had saved Lily. He hoped that the finality in what he had said, that he would never support the pure-blood ideals like she did or be interested in her, was not a factor in the death of his parents merely days later. Frowning at that thought, he suddenly got up and stretched with a groan. "I don't want to think about this anymore. Get some sleep. I'll wake you in the morning."

Emma just laughed and looked at him with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. It was the first time James had seen her laugh since they had found out what happened, and that made him feel better. If he didn't have his parents, at least he had some family left in her and Sirius and well—his secret. "I have a feeling I'll be waking you, James dear. Don't I always? Did you pack a bag already?"

James nodded and pointed to the corner. "It's over there. Night, Emma."

Emma sighed and moved, clambering onto the couch to get ready for bed. "Night, James."


	11. Chapter 11

Lily took her time getting ready the next morning. She didn't want to disturb James if he was still sleeping out on the couch. She wasn't sure when he and Emma were going to leave, but she knew she had to get to class quickly. As she collected all of her things, she hesitantly opened her door and made her way into the common room, hoping not to wake James. She was surprised to see Emma sitting on the couch, slightly dressed up in professional-looking, simple black robes with a bit of frills at the edge . She was reading until she heard the motion behind her. "Oh, good morning, Lily."

Lily stopped for a moment. "Morning, Emma. Are you two leaving early?"

Emma nodded and looked up at her. "We're meeting everyone just outside the Great Hall. James just went to get ready."

Something about Emma immediately struck her, now that she was seeing her up close for the first time,. "You have James' eyes."

Emma smiled slightly. "Yeah... Not many people notice. Both his mother and mine had hazel eyes."

"Like I told James yesterday, this shouldn't have happened. I'm sorry about your loss."

"I'm slowly getting used to it. James has been very supportive too. He's making it a lot easier on me."

Lily glanced at James' door with a small frown. "He's not the guy I thought he was."

Emma was watching Lily thoughtfully. She never thought she'd see the day, but she could have sworn she saw a spark of interest in James Potter from Lily Evans. This new information made her a little happier and encouraged her to find out for sure. Living with two of the biggest pranksters in the world made her a little more upfront than most. "You do know he's practically in love with you, right?"

Lily blushed brilliantly all across her face at Emma's question. "No, he's not. Umm, I better get to breakfast and what not. Can't be late."

Emma watched Lily literally run from the room to get away from her, or more likely, her suggestion. She smiled wickedly. Oh yeah, the redhead was beginning to like James. Now, the question was how she was going to get them together. Actually, it would probably just happen naturally. Regardless of what had happened to James' parents, she knew he liked Lily and would eventually ask her out again. Hopefully, the girl would have the courage to finally say yes. If she didn't, then Emma would have to step in. It was clear to nearly everyone else that they were meant to be.

Her thoughts were interrupted when James walked out of his room in black dress pants, a black button down shirt, and a black tie. He was carrying two black robes in his hand. "Wear your robes so soon, Em? I think you look nicer without it. Maybe you should just put it on before the funeral."

Emma shook her head. "I don't want to wear a fancy dress and attract too much attention to myself. I'd rather blend into the crowd at an event like this."

He nodded slightly. "That makes sense. Well, come on. We don't want to be late."

They walked out of the Heads' Dorm and made their way towards the Great Hall as Emma mentioned, "Lily left just before us."

James merely nodded absently, but made no effort to ask about the redhead.

Emma looked quite disheveled; did James not like her anymore or something? Well, being upfront with Lily got a reaction; perhaps James needed the same treatment. "She mentioned we have the same eyes."

That got his attention. "She did?"

Emma nodded and tried to hide her smile about how cute he sounded when he asked that question. His voice seemed a bit higher than usual. "She did."

James was quiet after that, but it didn't matter. Emma knew exactly what he was feeling, and words couldn't express his thoughts anyways. They were almost to the Great Hall, and the hallway was lined with about thirty others all dressed in black. Professor Dumbledore motioned for them to come over, so they made their way in front of him. James looked away from him, a tinge of anger resting on his face.

Lauren smiled at him. "Morning, Sir."

"Good morning." Dumbledore looked expectantly at James, but when he didn't say anything, he sighed. "Is there a particular reason you are not greeting me, James?"

James refused to look him in the eye and remained silent. When Lauren nudged him, he spoke up, "I'd rather not do this here, Sir."

Lauren looked confused. "What's going on?"

James laughed bitterly and spoke in an acrimonious tone. "Don't you think that Professor Dumbledore should have informed me about my parents' illness? Don't you think, as their only child, that I deserved to know about them having dragon pox? Don't you think I should have been warned that they would die anyways?"

Dumbledore calmly replied, "James, I am telling you, as I have many times before, that I didn't think you'd be able to handle the information."

He snorted. "I'm a legal adult, and you don't think I'd be able to handle it?!"

Dumbledore sighed. "James, I figured that it wouldn't hurt as much if I had told you when it happened. That way you wouldn't have mourned for months, only to mourn again for months when it actually happened." 

He waved his arms wildly. "At least maybe I would have been prepared!"

Dumbledore smiled sadly, a forlorn look passing over his face. "James, nothing can ever prepare you for the loss of a loved one."

"I would've known what to expect. I would have been informed. I wouldn't have felt betrayed. Yes, that's exactly what I feel. Angry beyond belief and betrayed. Betrayed by one of the few men I thought I could count on."

Dumbledore shook his head. "We'll talk more later, James. It's getting late. Now, I have created Portkeys for everyone. You two will take the one with Sirius. It will take you to your room at Potter Manor, James. The others will be arriving at their respective houses. All of the guests will arrive about an hour from now, and then everything can begin. The order of events is the usual mingling, the toasts, and the formal proceedings outside in the Potter crypt. Tomorrow, you and Lauren will finish any other legal matters with the Ministry and with the Potter estate. Alright?"

James and Emma nodded, and he led her over to Sirius, who was holding a quill. "Good morning, Prongs. Good morning, Lovely Emma."

Emma smacked him. "Watch it, Black."

"Grab the portkey, Emma. Dumbledore is counting down." James said solemnly.

And just like that, the pure-blood funeral was about to begin.

Lily, after running from the Heads' Dorm and away from Emma, made her way down to the Great Hall. She passed a bunch of people dressed in black waiting out front. Most were Slytherins who eyed her disdainfully as she passed, although she did recognize Frank and Alice standing off to the side with a couple of others who looked rather nice. She was surprised to notice that all the students present were seventh years, with the exception of Narcissa and Regulus Black who were fifth years. She supposed it was also customary that only 'of age' pure-blood wizards and witches were to attend. Of course, the Blacks were an exception, requiring the whole family to be present. She quickly ducked inside and sat over by Dorcas and Aishu, who asked, "You're running late today, aren't you Lily?"

"Just a bit."

She grabbed some food and ate quickly. About ten minutes later, she and Aishu found themselves in Herbology. However, Lily was surprised to see both Remus and Peter in the class as well. "Remus, Peter, wouldn't you two be going to the funeral today?"

Remus looked up in surprise when Lily and Aishu sat across from them but frowned at her question. "James told us we wouldn't be welcome. I'm a half-blood. So is Peter. We were both with him all day yesterday so it's alright."

Lily watched Peter simply nod at Remus' words, but her mouth dropped open. "So you're saying that regardless of who the Potters know or associate with, the only people welcome at their funeral are those that are pure-blood? Not even if you would be there merely to support James?"

Remus responded, "Pretty much."

Lily was again appalled at this whole system. "That's ridiculous."

Aishu sighed. "Lily, you know James wouldn't have it this way if he could. I bet it will be different when our generation is the adults of our society. It's already sort of a dying tradition. The Potters were just very prominent within the Ministry, making it more of an obligation."

That was basically all she could get out of them before class started. Class that day was boring. They had to work in pairs and go find particularly helpful potion ingredients in the garden and just outside of the Forbidden Forest. It seemed to be a pointless exercise. The rest of the day was no better. That afternoon, she had Transfiguration and Ancient Runes. Both were also boring, although she felt she took excellent notes. In Transfiguration, she felt completely lost. She was thinking she might just have enough courage to let go of her pride and ask James for some help. Ancient Runes was just extensive translating now that they were in seventh year, which was not exactly as interesting as it had been in previous years when the Professor included amazing stories of history into her lessons.

By the time she had finished with dinner, she just wanted to be left alone to do something more entertaining or something she liked to do. Once she got back to the Heads' Dorm, she sat in the common room, enjoying the quiet. Lily wrote lengthy letters to her family, something she hadn't had too much time to do over the past month or so. She was going to read one of her library books on old charms when she noticed the Marauders' Map sitting amongst her stuff. Grabbing it curiously , she let her curiosity win in that moment and gently tapped her wand to it. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The Map instantly came into view. She was astounded at the magic used to create the Map, although she wasn't exactly happy they had created it for mischief and mayhem. She was sure James and Sirius were behind the creation. While Remus was very intelligent, she believed he was more book intelligent than creative intelligent, so if anything, he probably had a hand in finding the spells that were used for the project, but that was it. Peter, on the other hand, just didn't have the magical caliber to create something like this on his own. She flipped through it carefully and eventually, she had looked everywhere. There were a ton of secret passageways within the castle that she had never in her wildest dreams known about. There were a select few secret passageways leading out of the castle as well, and she now knew where the kitchens were, although she would never admit to anyone she hadn't known where they were in the first place. However, something struck her as odd. She hadn't seen Remus or Peter on the Map anywhere. From what she had gathered from James, the Map showed everyone. She tapped her wand on the map. "I demand that you show me the location of the Marauders."

Nothing happened. Maybe it required more personal verification. "I, Lily Evans, demand that you show me the location of the Marauders."

Suddenly, the Map cleared and writing appeared in its place.

_Mr. Prongs would like to congratulate the beautiful Ms. Evans for noticing the Map's defect when in the hands of a non-Marauder. Mr. Prongs knows that if anyone would have discovered it, Ms. Evans would. Mr. Prongs would also like to add that if Ms. Evans is in possession of the Map, it is most likely because Mr. Prongs had wanted her to feel safe and it was not intended for her to use to check up on the Marauders._

Mr. Padfoot would just like to say that Mr. Prongs is completely wrapped around Ms. Evans' finger, and they are not even dating yet.

Mr. Prongs would like to take this opportunity to call Mr. Padfoot a prat and a git.

Mr. Moony agrees with Mr. Prong's first sentiments (and second sentiments) and would like to apologize to Ms. Evans for the stupidity of his friends and say that the Marauders are not always up to trouble, so Ms. Evans shouldn't worry.

Mr. Wormtail agrees with Mr. Moony and bids Ms. Evans a good day.

Lily's face was somewhat scandalized at what was written, but at the same time, she couldn't help but smile at the commentary and how they must have poured their personality into the Map. The Marauders really didn't seem so bad after all.

She eventually used the Map during her nightly patrol that night and the next, although it cut down on the need for her to patrol at all. She could tell usually halfway through her patrol that everyone was in their dorms where they were supposed to be. She continued her nightly walk anyway, just in case Professor McGonagall came out to check on her. The one thing that struck her as funny was the fact that Professor Dumbledore, although he had told her he wouldn't be in the castle at all for the two days, was in his office, at least while she was doing her patrols. She assumed he just hadn't wanted to be bothered if anything were to come up.

Most of her classmates returned sometime on Tuesday and slowly filtered back into their classes. James, Sirius, and Emma returned late Tuesday night. Lily only knew this because she had heard James come into the Heads' common room when she was about to go to sleep in her room. She sighed. Hopefully, things would get back to normal and her brief stint about possibly liking James Potter would go away. It just wasn't something that was possible.


	12. Chapter 12

It had been two weeks— two incredibly long, tortuous weeks. If Lily had thought for a single second that she didn't like James Potter, it came back to bite her in the ass the first morning he had come back. They had both come out of their rooms at similar times so they had walked down to the Great Hall together. However, as soon as she had looked at him in his school robe, dress pants, white dress shirt, and tie, she somehow had no idea what time they had made it to the Great Hall.

Not only was she constantly finding James more and more attractive (particularly after he arrived back from his many quidditch practices with his robes all stuck to him from working out), but all week she found herself watching James Potter and his mannerisms. She watched him doodle in class rather than take notes, noticed he had been really quiet for the past two weeks, and saw that he only seemed to smile occasionally— and even then, only when he was with the Marauders. The Marauders played a few pranks, but James didn't look like he was enjoying it like he used to. She also discovered that if James Potter had been a female target before, it was nothing compared to what he had become now. Almost all of the girls in the school were talking about the now serious, withdrawn, and mysterious James Potter. Well, she had heard a lot of girls debating about it in the bathroom, and it was obvious to assume others were as well. She did admit that others may still have been talking about Sirius or the other guys too. James, as usual, took no notice of this. She remembered back when they had been in fourth and fifth year, he had seemed to like the attention and encouraged it, but after he had started asking her out on a more serious scale late in fifth year, he seemed to care less and less about other girls' attentions.

During their nightly patrols, which they had now begun doing together again, she seemed to babble incessantly about anything and everything. She couldn't seem to hold a normal conversation with him anymore. She was incredibly nervous around him; she noticed herself fidgeting a lot and playing with her hair more. If he noticed this, he never let on. He let her ramble all she wanted and would answer her if she ever asked him a question, but mostly he just listened to her attentively. It was interesting to other people to see them getting along. She would assume they could now be considered friends, but that wasn't what she wanted anymore. She would ask herself time and time again, why couldn't he have been the same guy she saw over the past two months a long time ago so she would have said yes to him before? And then, she would remember that she had been so blinded by noticing all of his faults that she had never looked closer to see all of his good attributes. It was all her fault they weren't together already.

To top it all off, he hadn't asked her out. Not once. There had been the second Hogsmeade weekend coming up, the weekend before Halloween, and he— James-'just-go-out-with-me- Evans'-Potter— never asked her. She was hoping to surprise him and say yes to him for once, but he just never asked. There was even a conversation the two of them had about Hogsmeade that she had specifically brought up, and he hadn't taken the opportunity she had given him to ask her. She wondered if he no longer liked her in that way. Knowing that she might have missed her chance with him made her feel incredibly depressed. So here she was in Hogsmeade with Aishu (Dorcas was with Lee, and Alice was with Frank), and James Potter had come with the Marauders.

Somewhere during the day, Aishu had left her (actually, she practically begged her to be able to leave) to go off with a Hufflepuff boy by the name of Danny Jones. He was a beater on the Hufflepuff team, pretty good looking, and wanted to spend time with her. Aishu had been going crazy in her excitement. There was no way Lily would make her stay. Instead, she went off by herself, purchased a few things to replenish her potions ingredients, and eventually found an interesting book on difficult potions in the bookstore.

Lily wasn't sure she wanted to go back to Hogwarts just yet so she made her way towards the Shrieking Shack, where she could have some privacy to read her book. She pulled up the hood of her jacket over her red hair and slowly made her way up the rather desolate path. She had almost reached her destination when she heard commotion and activity near the Shrieking Shack. She was just going to push on until she heard Sirius' voice ring out, "Hey Prongs, why didn't you ask Evans to Hogsmeade?"

Lily immediately stopped walking and hid behind a tree. That was information she wanted to know as well. She heard James sigh and respond, "We've been getting along now, and I didn't want to ruin it by asking her out and having her get mad at me again."

Lily felt awful. She must've hurt him a lot each time she had ever said no to him. She heard Remus add, "Well, she seems to like you now for whatever reason. Maybe she's finally come around."

She glanced over and saw James shake his head, thoroughly disbelieving Remus. She was disappointed by him doubting her, but at the same time, she had never given him any reason to think she liked him before. "I don't know. I'm awful with reading girls' emotions. Emma tells me all the time."

Sirius snickered. "That's because you told her to chill when she just broke up with Dan and was feeling rather awful."

James protested, "Well, she was freaking out unnecessarily that day."

The Marauders all laughed. Peter glanced over at Remus, curious. "When's our next field trip?"

Remus sighed and glared over at the Shrieking Shack with disdain. "Thursday."

Sirius nudged James. "You're coming this time, right? You missed the first because of Heads' duties during first week, and then the second time, you were in the hospital wing knocked out."

James nodded. "I'll let Lily know. I'm sure she won't mind doing patrol by herself for one evening."

Lily had no idea what they were talking about. She decided it was about time for her to leave or make her presence known. She was debating about which. Since they had just been talking about her, she didn't want them to know she had heard them talking about her, and she was far enough away to slip away unnoticed, she left. She immediately made her way back up to Hogwarts, feeling a bit sad. How was she going to get James to ask her out now? He obviously still liked her, but she seriously had no idea on how to go about talking with him so he would feel comfortable enough to ask her out again. She also wasn't sure she had the courage to ask him out herself; not to mention it would appear a little out of nowhere, seeing as she had never liked him that way before.

She just wished he would somehow know that she was crushing on him. Hard. Lily sighed. It seemed to be hopeless.


	13. Chapter 13

James had no idea what was going on with Lily that week. After Hogsmeade, he had noticed that while she still rambled a whole lot, she just didn't seem to be as happy.

When he had mentioned to her about going somewhere with the Marauders on Thursday night and asked if she would be okay to patrol by herself that night, she didn't even look fazed and said she wouldn't mind. He had been expecting to have to give her a good reason, but she surprised him by acting indifferently.

After that moment, he began watching her more closely, not that he didn't always watch her already. He quickly noticed that she didn't smile that often, and she looked sort of depressed about something. Most of her magic was still on point, although he found that she still hadn't gotten the hang of Transfiguration or some of the Herbology stuff. Well, no one really understood Herbology, but still.

He kind of wanted to ask her if she was alright, but it didn't seem proper. Even though you could technically call them friends by that point, Lily seemed to be maintaining her distance from him, so James was determined to give her the same courtesy.

On Thursday, he handed her the Marauders' Map while she was reading quietly on the couch, and he was actually rewarded with the tiniest of smiles. "Thanks."

James nodded, his own grin appearing at seeing her first smile in days. "I don't know what time I'll be back, so I guess I'll see you later."

She just waved at him as he left. James pulled out his invisibility cloak from his pocket and kept it handy. He didn't think he would need it yet, as it was still early in the evening, but once he reached the guys, they would be putting it on. Sirius and Peter were waiting by a secret passage that would take them out of the castle and onto the grounds, but they were standing there like they were just talking.

When James walked up, they threw on the cloak and made their way outside together. It was just beginning to get dark, so they knew Remus would already be in the Shrieking Shack. As they approached the Whomping Willow, Peter immediately transformed into a rat and ran up to push the knot on the side of the tree for them.

James hid his invisibility cloak where he usually did, in a small hole near the entrance of the Whomping Willow, and they made their way quickly into the tunnel. They walked along and upon reaching the trapdoor to the Shrieking Shack, James magically unlocked it. James pulled his way up, as did Sirius, holding Peter in his rat form. James magically sealed the trapdoor once more and called out tentatively, "Moony?"

They barely heard his reply and hurried up the stairs. Remus looked worse for wear, as he rested tiredly on the rickety cot in the corner of the room. He was really pale, exhausted, and his breathing had slowed. He usually looked that way before a full moon. His blue eyes, now tinted with amber, instantly turned to the Marauders when they had arrived, but they darkened upon noticing James and Sirius still in their human forms. "You both should probably change. It could happen any minute now."

James and Sirius nodded and shifted into their animagi, a great white stag and a large black dog respectively. It wasn't long before Remus started to howl in pain as the painful transformation overcame him. The stag, the black dog, and the rat looked on sorrowfully, for they hated watching Remus go through the horrible change.

All too soon, the werewolf, upon finishing his transformation, began howling and wanted to attack. The werewolf attacked James first so he lowered his antlers immediately. James noticed Sirius jump up on the werewolf to get him to back off. When the two of them had subdued him a bit, Sirius wagged his tail and led them to the door of the Shrieking Shack. Peter had made his way onto Sirius' back so James, Sirius, and the werewolf began romping through the Forbidden Forest.

James and Sirius were usually able to keep the werewolf under some semblance of control during their outings, but at one point during that night, James was watching in amusement as Sirius attempted to climb a tree as a dog and the werewolf suddenly attacked him, leaving a large, paw print-like gash on his back.

Sirius immediately reacted when he heard the stag's strangled cry. James backed away for a minute, but then used his antlers to help control the werewolf. When the werewolf finally backed off, Sirius immediately looked over at James, probably to ask if they should go back, but James pushed forward.

It was near the early morning when the full moon started to set. The Marauders eventually guided the werewolf back to the Shrieking Shack before he turned back into Remus. When the three of them had watched the werewolf begin to lie off in the corner, they made their way down the stairs. Sirius changed back cautiously while the other two remained animals just in case the werewolf decided to descend because he could smell Sirius.

He magically unlocked the door and jumped through, followed by a human James and Peter. Sirius and Peter started through the tunnel quickly as James magically locked the trapdoor once more.

They hurried on their way, knowing that Madam Pomfrey would soon come to collect Remus. James grabbed the invisibility cloak and wrapped it around the three of them, and they made their way up to the castle. He dropped them off at the Gryffindor portrait first before heading to the Heads' Dorm.

When he made his way inside, he instantly tried to be quiet. Lying on the far right armchair, sleeping peacefully, was Lily Evans. He couldn't help but smile at how adorable she looked when she slept.

He walked over towards her hesitantly and carefully grabbed the book she had been reading out of her hands and placed it on the coffee table. He then conjured a blanket and placed it on her.

She sighed in her sleep but didn't wake up. James finally made his way to his own bed. They had class in the morning in about three hours. He immediately set a personal alarm charm for 8:30am, tore off his shirt, and just fell into his bed to sleep.

When Lily woke up the next morning, she was surprised to find herself in the armchair in the Heads' common room. She remembered reading the night before, but not falling asleep. She also did not remember grabbing a blanket either. Finally, she could discern the reason she had woken up in the first place. It was Sirius shouting outside the Heads' Dorm for James to wake up.

She walked over to the entry way, but didn't open it. She remembered what James had said about Sirius waking him up. "Sirius, what do you want? I'm not supposed to let you in here."

Sirius just laughed. "I need James. Tell him to get his sleepy ass out of bed, or I will come in there and do it for him."

Lily smirked and looked down at her watch. "Sirius, it's 7am. You guys were out late last night, and you want me to go wake him up?"

"Yup!"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Alright, just a second."

Lily made her way over to James' room. She had never been in there before, but she also didn't want to let Sirius inside the Heads' Dorm, as James had told her not to. She cautiously opened the door to his room and saw him sleeping with no shirt on. If that wasn't enough of a wakeup call for her, he also had five deep gashes on his back that looked fresh. She covered her mouth with her hand. She slowly entered into his room and nudged him gently in the arm with her hand, "James? James, wake up."

He mumbled something incoherently before opening his eyes slowly and focusing on her. "Lily? What's going on? Is something wrong?"

Lily shook her head. "Other than Sirius banging on the sphinx gargoyle and shouting that you have to get up, nothing's wrong."

He grabbed his glasses before looking over at the clock and groaning. "That asshole."

Lily just smirked and tried not to look at his bare chest as he got up. She knew she was blushing, but as long as James didn't comment on this, she could handle looking a little flushed. "Umm, by the way, did you know you have five deep gashes on your back?"

James looked at her like she was crazy for a minute, before frowning and remembering something. "Oh yeah, that. I can take care of that. Tell Sirius, I'll be ten minutes. You can let him in if you can handle him."

He immediately started grabbing stuff around his room so she got up to walk out. She closed his door and made her way over to the entry way to let Sirius in. Once the sphinx moved aside, Sirius took off towards James' room. When he was about ¾ of the way there, he was suddenly immobilized and was levitating to the couch.

His eyes widened as he saw Lily with her wand on him. She released the immobilization when he was lying on the couch, and he immediately started moving and making furious comments. She didn't hesitate and jabbed her wand, silencing him.

With her wand still on him, she began to speak, "No, you listen. James warned me about all your tricks you like to play. Now, you are not to enter either of our rooms. If you do, I will be forced to use whatever charm I see fit to detain you, and I will make sure it lasts for more than a few hours. Instead, you are going to sit here calmly waiting for James to get done showering and what not. He said he'll be about ten minutes. Got that?"

She eyed him and saw him gulp and quickly nod in agreement with wide eyes. She removed the silencing charm, and he moved as far away from her as possible on the couch. She plopped down on the armchair she had slept in and picked up the book she had been reading the night before, before adding irritably. "Thanks to you, I am up insanely early. You know, not all girls take forever to get ready."

Sirius just nodded mutely, almost afraid to answer her verbally. He picked up the ancient book on transfiguration that James had been reading and poured over it a bit. After a couple of minutes, James came out of his room dressed and ready to go, and Sirius flew up from the couch. "Can we go now, James? And quickly?"

James was immediately curious as to Sirius' odd behavior. He looked between Lily and Sirius, and he swore he saw Lily grin evilly while she was reading her book. "Sure."

Sirius simply nodded at his response and began shooing the both of them to the door, with his eyes on Lily. James suddenly started to laugh, and his eyes began to sparkle and look like he had just gotten the best present of his life. "Wait, Padfoot, are you SCARED of Lily?"

Sirius vehemently shook his head in the negative, but he still tried to push James toward the sphinx. Lily just arched her eyebrows at Sirius and asked sweetly, "What? Going so soon, Sirius?"

Sirius blanched. "That woman is evil, James. Absolutely evil!"

James was laughing so hard, tears were almost coming out. "Thanks, Lily. I'm not sure for what, but it must've been great."

Lily just smiled into her book. James was relieved to see her looking almost normal for once, "You're welcome. See you later."

Lily was going crazy inside. Ever since the morning episode, she had started noticing how handsome James was that day, with his messy black hair and twinkling eyes. It had been long enough after the tragedy that he had opened up at least a bit, laughing more and more. Now, not only was she obsessing about his sweet personality and his companionship, but she couldn't handle standing next to him pretty often.

It didn't help that she found herself paired with him all of the time. First, they lived together and did nightly patrol together. In Potions, they had walked in late together because they had been doing some Head duties so they were told to just pair up for the next couple of potion assignments that everyone else had already been paired up for.

Dumbledore had asked them to help maintain order at the Halloween feast, and they both had been forced to stand together just outside the entrance to the Great Hall, making sure kids didn't get too rowdy with the candy as they left to go back to their dorms, although she had been happy to be with an almost hysterical James when all of the Slytherins were somehow charmed to sing and dance madly to a muggle song called 'Celebration' in the Great Hall that night.

There were times where she caught him eyeing her with interest, but she had no idea what to do about it. She felt like they were playing a game of cat and mouse, but no one was going after anyone. She sighed.

Now, she was heading to the Heads' Dorm to hopefully get her studying done. However, as soon as she entered the Heads' common room, she wasn't sure how much studying she was going to be able to do. James was sitting in the far right armchair reading Herbology with his legs stretched out on the coffee table, wearing the usual Gryffindor uniform. He glanced up as she entered, a tiny grin gracing his handsome features. "Hey, Lily."

She breathed out a soft reply, as that was all she could really say at the moment. "Hey."

Lily walked over to the table on the far right side of the room and plopped herself down in one of the two chairs. She picked that spot so she would be sitting behind the armchair James was sitting in and wouldn't be able to see him clearly, if at all. However, James sat up, turned, and looked over at her from the top of the armchair, a bit concerned. "Are you alright? You look a little…frazzled."

Lily shook her head and forced a smile to show him everything was just fine. God, he was even being sweet too. And did he have to tilt his head like that? "I'm fine, just lots to do."

He nodded a bit, looking her over carefully before getting comfortable again in the armchair. Lily sighed and sat down, pulling out all of her books. She was just about to start doing her Transfiguration homework when she saw James cautiously approaching the table with his Herbology book, parchment, and a quill.

She had been so focused that she hadn't heard him get up. She froze slightly when he spoke to her, "Umm, you don't mind, do you? I can't write this essay over there; it's easier on the table. I was almost done reading and outlining when you came in…"

Of course, she minded. She wouldn't be able to learn a thing now, especially in Transfiguration. "Umm, no. Go ahead."

He sat down next to her and didn't hesitate in starting his Herbology essay. She noticed his Herbology book had quill marks at certain spots of the text, probably stuff he was planning on using in the essay. She had done that essay yesterday, and it hadn't been too bad. She tried focusing on Transfiguration, as she had to do an essay to determine what she was doing wrong with the 'transotio' spell.

About half the class had to do this essay, and she was one of them. She had no idea what she was doing wrong, so needless to say, it was going to take a while. On top of that spell, they had continued learning more complex transfiguration spells she was nowhere near ready to even try. She thought about asking James, but he was busy at the moment; not to mention, she was trying to avoid him so she wouldn't focus on how much she liked him. When she glanced at him again out of the corner of her eye, she noticed he had already written about a third of his essay.

When James heard her sigh for a fourth time at her reading, he looked over at her, once again concerned. "Are you sure you're okay?"

She looked up at him, and she almost looked sad, although he didn't know why she would be. Lily just tried to think of anything to take her mind off of James sitting next to her. "Okay, it's Transfiguration. I have to do that essay, and I still don't know what I'm doing wrong. The reading doesn't help at all."

James smiled. This was at least something he could help her with. "Well, you have the best tutor at your disposal. Let me see you do the spell. Use the coffee table or something."

She hesitantly got up and walked over to the coffee table. She was more than a little nervous to have James' eyes on her, but she waved her wand as required, stating clearly, "Transotio."

The coffee table shrunk into a slimy green looking thing. It wasn't pretty. James waved his wand, and the coffee table returned to normal. He was frowning as he looked at her. "Lily, have you ever studied wards before?"

Lily shook her head and looked at him curiously. "Not really. Just a few basic ones, why?"

"It's your wand movement that's the problem. You see, with wards, you have to have highly intricate wand movements while saying the spells and incantations at specific moments. Transfiguration is similar, just less complicated. The wand movement for Transfiguration also has to be perfect, and the timing when you say the spell is also important. From here, it looked like you're not confident when you move your wand, probably because you don't like Transfiguration all that much. You need to have better control of your wand movement for the spell to execute correctly. Also, it looked like you're missing the slight upward flick before you bring your wand down. Like this."

Lily watched him move his wand carefully in front of him, and she noticed the slight upward flick he was talking about, although she had no idea how to do it like he did. She supposed if she had been listening carefully rather than staring at him a bit, she might have understood everything better. "Uhh, right."

She gave it a try again, this time with an upward flick of some kind, and the coffee table turned into a slug. She frowned. "At least it's an animal."

James laughed at her cynicism, as he waved his wand to restore the coffee table once more. "Here, let me show you a different way. It's still not exactly right."

Lily felt James walk up behind her, slightly to her right. He reached out his arm, stretching it along hers and raking his fingers along her pale skin. Grasping her hand, he wrapped a few fingers around the base of her wand, "Now, relax your arm, and watch closely."

Lily could barely move, and if James had let go of her hand just then, it probably would have dropped at her side because her skin had gone limp, tingling with numbness. She could feel his erratic breathing on her hair and his nose pressed to the top of her head, his cold skin causing her to shiver.

His body was pressed up tightly against her, and his hand was resting gently on top of hers, controlling each of her movements. She froze, gasping as his other hand ran along her side, firmly grasping her hip. When Lily looked up at him inquiringly, he nonchalantly replied, "For support. I don't want you to fall."

She was practically leaning against him, using his weight to support herself and trying to concentrate on the spell. She felt like she was going crazy inside; she could feel his chest rising and falling, and her own breathing automatically adjusted to match his. For a while, it almost seemed as if they were one being, merged together, two souls one, each breath the same and their heartbeats occurring at each pace, the same. Closing her eyes, she savored his sweet aroma.

To James, being that close to Lily, close enough to smell the sweet scent of her hair and her perfume, was too much for him. He wasn't sure he could handle her leaning against him like that much longer. Her skin was so soft, and her hair was so silky; she was killing him. Literally killing him. Unknowingly, he shifted his hand from her waist and ran it through a few of her long, dark strands. This was torture. Sweet torture, but torture nonetheless.

Deciding to get 'the lesson' over with, he gritted his teeth and directed her hand to perform the spell with the proper twirl, the slight upward flick, and the downward flick. The coffee table immediately became a mouse when she said the spell, performing the action.

Clapping, Lily turned to face James, "Yes!" He smiled, facing her and inhaling sharply at what he saw. Her face was so close to him, and he was looking straight into her emerald green eyes. They were so close, he could see her reflection and feel his heart pounding. James was positive he would die if they stood like that for even a second longer.

But they remained in that position, until she yelped, tripping over his foot and sprawling. In her haste, Lily grabbed his shirt, causing him to fall on top of her. They both just rested there, heaving for a minute, as silent as mice.

Something inside of James snapped, and he just couldn't take it any longer, pressing his lips firmly to Lily's and feeling sparks at the mere contact. He was surprised, but nonetheless extremely delighted when she kissed him back. At that moment, it felt like they were in heaven.

When they both pulled back a few seconds later, he looked at her curiously and found his voice. "I know why I kissed you, but you—I mean, why'd you kiss me?"

Lily blushed and looked anywhere but at him. "I, well— Okay, I like you. A lot."

James just grinned slowly. So was this the reason she had been acting all different for a while now? "Really?"

She was now not looking at him at all, but she nodded at his question. James couldn't stop grinning. "Hey, Evans?"

She looked back at him warily. "Yes?"

"Would you go out with me?"

She glared at him playfully, but he could tell she was happy by the sparkle in her eyes. "If you ask me nicely."

He tentatively grabbed her hand and kissed it before looking up at her, "Lily, would you do me the honor of going out with me?"

Lily slowly smiled at him. "Well, maybe."

James leapt back from her, and he looked mildly outraged. "Maybe!"

Lily laughed at him. "I'm just kidding. Yes, James, I would love to."

James grinned and leaned in closer to her. "May I kiss you again?"

When Lily nodded slowly, still smiling, he leaned over. This time they were both more prepared for it, and the kiss was far better than the first. He kissed her slowly and sweetly before eventually pulling away, almost unwillingly. "Damn. How am I going to concentrate on anything now?"

Lily merely nodded in agreement, feeling his plight. "Tell me about it. I can't remember a single thing you said about wards."

James looked over at her with a wicked grin, surprised yet incredibly amused by her words. "Well, I guess I'll have to help you again then, won't I?"

Lily rolled her eyes, although she was still smiling. "You have to finish your Herbology essay first. You're almost done anyway."

James nodded and turned back toward his Herbology essay somewhat grudgingly. They both were quiet as they continued to do their homework together, although if anyone would have walked in just then, they would have seen two very happy individuals, smiling like they hadn't smiled in a long time.


End file.
